Everything On It
by JackpotGirl
Summary: Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. The only problem - the boy lives halfway around the world and has to leave the next day. AU oOo Blainchel & Fabrevans oOo READ FULL SUMMARY INSIDE
1. Chapter 1

**_**Genre: **_**_Romance/Friendship_

_**Pairings:** Rachel Berry & Blaine Anderson (Blainchel, Raine), Quinn Fabray & Sam Evans (Fabrevans)_

_**Rating: **K+ (there will be smut in a later chapters with a separate warning each) _

_**Summary: **Blaine Anderson meets Rachel Berry in a London pub and convinces her to spend the last night of his European vacation roaming the city with him. In a whirlwind night they fall in love but have to part the next day. Back in New York, Blaine's single Mom- room mate Quinn Fabray takes the fall-out from Blaine's overnight romance having to deal with late night calls and broken hearts. On the other side of the ocean, Rachel's brother Sam is equally annoyed with his baby sister and sets her up for an internship in New York. And so begins a trial run for a relationship that could potentially be the best thing they ever had – but can they make it work?_

_**Status:** Chaptered, In-Progress_

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><p><strong>Everything On It <strong>

_"__If we were honest and both wrote a sonnet together_  
><em>a sandwich with everything on it,<em>  
><em>at least we would know that the sparks didn't glow<em>  
><em>but we owe it to ourselves to try,<em>  
><em>so we aim and ignite!" - A Roman Candle by Fun.<em>

_Chapter One_

It seemed like there wasn't a single bar in this town that didn't have karaoke night some day of the week and somehow Blaine had managed three nights of his week there to seek out those pubs where the least talented, boozed up, red-headed rugby players sang "Three Lions". The air was dense and humid in the corner pub, the dark wooden wagon wheels lining the walls and tinted windows giving it a rusty, traditional charm. There where molds in the walls that had been turned into bookshelves, old photos, paintings and some vintage postcards hung scattered around as decoration and the occasional plastic plant stood in that or the other corner. He felt a little like the hobbit returned to the shire.

Still, most guests didn't pay much attention to the interior, too busy celebrating their love for soccer with the hopelessly wasted group of singers swaying around on stage. Or football as they called it, whatever.

The joint was reasonably full so Blaine couldn't keep up his attempted conversation with the Barkeeper as the latter had to pace back from one end of the bar to the other to keep passing out Guinness and Cider and Lager and all kinds of other alcohol Blaine had learned to be careful with. These Europeans knew how to hold their liquor and apparently that was why all their alcoholic beverages were stronger, hitting his American stomach harder than what he was used to.

He would probably finish his pint of Cider and try to find some other thing to do, maybe give the nerdy Couchsurfer he was staying with another call to ask him for company.

Grayson was a nice enough guy, letting Blaine crash on his couch for two nights and based on his Internet profile he'd seemed cool, listing a long line of video games he loved and how he lived in Kensington, a really trendy part of town. But it had turned out that Grayson neither cared much about going out nor knew anything about his hip neighborhood at all. Instead, he was very serious about his Counter Strike scores and Blaine's night had resulted in fruitless attempts of getting the younger guy to go outside with him and then finally, after letting himself get killed at Grayson's flank, albeit becoming useless for his tactical efforts in the game, went out alone.

This was a definite blow to his plan and not at all what he had expected from his last night in Europe.

He'd had a great deal of fun already, starting in Italy, taking a short detour to Barcelona, then Vienna, Frankfurt to visit his German relatives, Berlin because he loved the city, Paris and then finally London for a long weekend before he had to head back to New York to resume his work as freelance journalist and full time politics blogger.

Tomorrow at 12 PM, he had to be at Heathrow airport and eight hours later would touch down in New York again. It would be a crying shame if he'd spent the night sulking away playing video games with a cellar dweller because he couldn't manage to find something better to do.

"Want another one?", the barkeeper asked Blaine with a wink to his nearly empty Cider, shaking him out of his thoughts and he noticed the rugby choir had descended from the stage.

Blaine was about to shake his head no and step outside to find some nightclub when a considerably more pleasant voice wallowed through the room from the stage.

"Is this thing on?", it was a girl speaking with that British accent that weirdly turned him on because the most random thing suddenly sounded smart in his ears. And Blaine was a sucker for smart.

Even back in High School, he had picked his longterm girlfriends for wits and brains, rather than tits and legs. He simply didn't see the appeal in spending time with someone who couldn't hold a conversation. If the relationship should be for anything other than a night of fun she would have to at least be able to do that. He could imagine few things worse than being stuck with someone he couldn't talk to – an endless chain of awkward silences, dotted by second-hand embarrassment if she was _really_ stupid and the things she did say would be horrendously wrong and/or ridiculous. No, he liked his girls smart and sharp and so far he hadn't regretted that. Only that apparently the smart girls hid from him, resulting in his single-dom for the past year.

Not to say he didn't have sex. He was, after all, a guy and jerking off only did the job for so long but Blaine prided himself with honesty. If he wanted someone for sex and sex only, he made sure the girl understood and agreed. He didn't want bad feelings or a guilty conscious over someone who'd expected a great big love affair. The past year had shown him though that more girls than people would imagine were perfectly fine with just having a night's fun and that's it.

The dirty guitar riff of "I Love Rock'n'Roll" filled the pub and all around him heads started to nod and from somewhere a crowd of high pitched "Wooooo"'s erupted as the girl started singing. Blaine was curious. Maybe, if this girl looked like she sang, he would try and figure out if _she_ was up for some fun. A European hook-up would be the icing on the cake for him.

"Mate?", the bartender said again and knocked his knuckles at the wood of the bar, "You want another one or not?"

"Yeah, go ahead", Blaine nodded, passing over his glass, "Thanks buddy"

Blaine payed his three pounds for the drink and vacated his seat on the bar to push through the thickening crowd, around the corner to the stage to see the body that belonged to that beautiful, slightly slurred voice.

Her movements were slow and sensual, as if someone had pressed the slow motion button and Blaine was speechless for a second, his eyes momentarily falling to her tiny waist.

She wore a black corset like top with a line of buttons holding it all together. Her skinny jeans sat on her narrow hips and his eyes stuck on the little bit of bare skin between the top and the stonewashed blue jeans that hugged her legs tightly. Her right knee was visible through a gaping whole in the fabric but Blaine quickly carried on his once over, acknowledging the black heeled boots peaking out from under the rim of the jeans and finally gazed up to examine the rest of her.

Long wild, black hair framed her longish, oval face, the shape perfect to fit her pointed and prominent nose. It was her most obvious feature, her trademark possibly but as soon as he looked, it led his eyes down to her big sensual mouth and Blaine was hit hot with a wave of images, picturing that mouth stretched around him. He could almost feel it on him and grunted quietly into his Cider as his dick twitched up against the thick linen of his pants, meeting resistance feeling a little like the one he'd meet when he hit the back of her throat.

_Focus, Anderson_, he scolded himself. It had been too long since he'd last had sex. The whole month and a half he'd been traveling he hadn't had a girl and some three weeks before that in New York.

It was only natural that she would intrigue him. She was just his type, dark haired and a little exotic. He thought she could be a little wider around the hips but he could see from his vantage point as she danced to the beat that she had a perfect, apple-bottomed ass to make up for the slight lack of curves. His eyes ran over her frame for the final assessment and he approved her. She was not only so hot it dried his throat, she also seemed to convey a great big deal of personality through her performance, she seemed cheeky and funny, confident and determined. She was beautiful, probably the most beautiful girl he'd seen on his journey altogether.

The song continued, people kept cheering and Blaine was still hot. He tried to stand broader, make himself a little taller so that she would maybe catch his eye with her dark brown ones but it was no use. She alternated from looking to the screen with the words to a huddle of girls sitting in a corner nearby, screaming the kind of frivolities best girlfriends screamed at each other in public places after some drinks in their systems. "Hot damn, Mama", an Asian girl yelled at her when Blaine looked over and she threw her hands over her head, pumping up her fists and pursing her mouth. She was pretty too but she had nothing on the girl on stage.

When the song ended, Blaine felt a dagger of unease, he didn't want her to climb down from the stage, watching her disappear briefly into the crowd. He wanted to keep watching her dance and sing and sway those tauntingly tiny hips from side to side and lick her lips and hit them against the microphone. But he could only make out the back of her head now as she fought her way back to her friends through the crowd. There was not a single man she passed on her way that didn't turn to look at her. A current of competitive jealousy ran through his body and he mindlessly followed her, trying to swallow a knot of nerves forming in his throat. But what did he have to lose? It was his last night and all she could say was no.

"Hi, I'm Blaine, can I buy you a drink?", he said upon touching her elbow before she even had a chance to climb back onto her bar stool, "You have a really great voice"

A flicker of pride crossed her dark brown eyes but most pronouncedly she sported the wary kind of sarcastic look the certain type of girl she appeared to be threw on at an unwelcome intrusion by a male. The kind that said 'I am unavailable and not interested but let's watch you try'. Normally this would've turned him off but in her case – probably because he thought it was an insanely sexy British thing to do – it spurred him on.

"Why thank you", she finally said with a small smile and Blaine could feel three sets of other eyes on him, her girlfriends practically holding their breaths watching the scene.

For a second he was worried that they were bracing themselves for a laugh, maybe the brunette was a bad mouth and would humiliate him in a second, maybe they had seen many a poor guys trying to hit on their friend, each and everyone failing at a wall of superiority.

"So, um...", he started, cursing his throat for drying out, making it necessary to clear it, causing an awkward pause and making it seem like he was nervous – he wasn't, absolutely not nervous at all – and he propped his elbow on the girl's table casually to cover it up and seem cool, "Do you want a drink?"

"I couldn't possibly sit here and drink free beer when my friends are starring at empty glasses, that's horribly impolite", she quipped, an eyebrow raised and pushed herself onto her stool from the table.

The table rumbled by her movements and had Blaine slipping, his elbow falling from the wood into nothingness and he had to catch himself in midair, something that must've looked like a clown-move because the whole of the girls table was laughing.

"Fine, drinks for all of you", he trumpeted, mostly to distract them from his mishap and soon enough, the news caught on and they cheered again.

"I'd like _Sex On The Beach_", the Asian girl cooed with a wink and the caramel haired girl beside her giggled.

"_Cosmopolitan_", she giggled on, probably thinking she came straight from _Sex And The City_ but Blaine knew New York girls and he'd never seen someone try so hard to seem like a big city tough shot where he was from. In New York, girls – at least the girls he met – where all about understatement.

His room mate Quinn for example. He'd met her the first time in a bar in the Village in a quite similar situation. She looked collected and sophisticated and drank Club Soda watching Blaine do his thing with an amused calm and casual ease.

He'd tried hitting on her friend Santana and they had let him have a good run at it – while they were having a pretty good laugh because half an hour and three Apple Martinis later Santana flung her arms around the other blond, Brittany, at the table and french-kissed her for about two minutes.

"Sorry, not on your team", she had laughed and Blaine had been the butt of the joke just like he was now.

"I'd like a _Tropic Thunder_", the third one, a round black girl with rosy cheeks and colorful clothes, said now, stopping Blaine's swoop down memory lane and lastly, his brunette tilted her head and glanced down at the menu on the table.

"Pint of Lager", she ordered with a glint in her eye and then smiled, "Please"

He'd left his Cider at the table with them, which had been a good idea, he thought as he tried to carry four Cocktails and the pint of Lager back to them without spilling. That was of course an impossible task but as he handed the glasses over they didn't seem to mind that at least a third of their drinks had run over his wrists to the floor.

After he'd passed on the beer, he slipped onto the offered bar stool and tried to lick his fingers off of the sugary, sticky spill.

When he looked up, _she_ was starring at him, "We're waiting for you to toast with us"

"Oh", he muttered and grabbed a hold of his Cider, "Of course"

"Cheers", the girls all chimed and hit their glasses together in the middle.

"To our generous donor", the brunette laughed, "Who still hasn't managed to ask us for our names"

Blaine's eyes got big at her grin and it took him a second to remember how to speak. Up close like this, she was even more beautiful than from afar, "I'm sorry"

"It's fine, you got us drinks", the Asian quipped, "I'm Tina"

"Sugar Motta, nice to meet you", the caramel haired girl said with a deliberately lowered voice, shaking his hand over the table.

"Mercedes Jones", the black girl said with a nod.

Blaine nodded back politely and then waited a second before turning over to the only girl he honestly cared to know the name of.

"I'm Rachel", she said.

Rachel. That was a nice name. Short and neat and it fit her well. He'd probably shorten it for bed though, he thought. If he would get her to bed. He thought he could maybe possibly get there if he brought his A-game. And stop his palms from sweating like crazy and his throat from being so dry.

"So tell me, Blaine", Rachel started and he focused his attention back fully on her, watching her mouth move and eyes flicker, "Where are you from?"

"New York City"

"Really?", he could see she was trying hard to conceal her curiosity and joy. He could tell from her straightening posture that he had met another NY-Fan. There were plenty to go around in Europe but it had never benefited him as much as it did now.

"I live in the Village, it's pretty neat", he said. Really, it was all kinds of pretentious and ridiculously expensive but that probably wasn't what Rachel wanted to hear, "Have you ever been?"

"Twice", she said and her eyes glimmered mesmerizingly, "I love Broadway shows, so do my Dads"

Blaine paused, "Excuse me, did you say Dad_s_, as in plural?"

"Yes", she said, features hardening for a second, "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No, of course not", he hurried to say, "No problem, I was just curious, sounds like an interesting family history"

"Not too interesting really. They had a surrogate to have me and when I got older I wanted a big brother so they adopted Sam", she told him, "We're just a regular family"

"Sam's tall and strong", Tina threw in, eyes glossy as if she saw the mystery man in front of her inner eye.

"Scary dude", said Sugar warningly in a poorly mimicked American accent and Blaine got the hint.

They were drawing a close circle around Rachel. This was gonna be a challenge. And he accepted it.

"Is he around somewhere?", he asked with a lopsided grin that usually did the job to soften any fury or animosity sent his way. It didn't fail this time either.

"He's finishing his new book", Rachel said, "He hasn't left the house for a week"

"He's a writer?", Blaine asked, legitimately curious.

"Novelist", Rachel said, "Not too famous yet but he won a couple of newcomer prizes. He writes crime novels, publishes under his birth name, Samuel Evans. You might know '_The White Widow_'? It got published in the US", she told him but he shook his head, never having heard of it, "You should read it, it's really good"

"I will", he promised, "I'm a writer too"

"Really?", she seemed doubtful.

"Well, journalist more like", he said, "I write for the New York Times, the politics section but mainly I blog"

"Blog? So you post vintage-like photographs of street style and hipsters?", Rachel mocked.

"No", he protested between the giggles of the other girls, "I _write_. Like I said, it's a politics blog. Inside scoop and all that jazz. It's got a pretty huge following"

"A-huh", Rachel nodded amusedly, still mocking him, "Whatever you say"

He looked at her for a second then down to his watch, then back to her, narrowing his eyes and made a tactic decision, "Okay, fine, whatever. I gotta go"

He could see her eyes widen and her body shooting up from the corner of his eye as he turned to grab his stuff and leave.

"Hey wait", she said and touched his wrist, "I'm sorry. I'm sure you're really important, I didn't mean to be a bitch. You don't have to leave"

"It's very cute that you think I'd go because you insulted my ego but I _really_ have to go, I'm meeting a friend at this night club nearby", he said, pokerface tightly in place.

"The 39?", Rachel said, standing opposite him as she'd wiggled off her chair to keep him from leaving.

"Yeah, that one", Blaine replied, happy that his plan worked somewhat. Of course he had no idea about nearby clubs and he wasn't meeting with a friend either – but she didn't know that, "So unless you want to come with me, I really have to go"

Rachel deliberated and her hesitance to say no made him smile. He was well on his way into her pants.

She glanced back to her friends who shrugged, Sugar saying she wanted to go and Tina saying she absolutely did not. Rachel took a deep breath before turning back to him.

"Yeah, no", she said, her business-like smile back on her face, "I can't, but you have fun"

Blaine nodded unfazed and slipped into his jacket, "Well, if you change your mind, I'll be there for a while. Goodnight ladies"

Blaine turned on his heels and didn't look back, simply hearing the girls behind him wishing him a nice night as well and then he already pushed through the crowd to get outside, into the brittle spring night and zipped up his coat. He only had to find that club now...and then wait.

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><p><strong>Review if you want more :) Really, first chapters are always kinda like pilots, so tell me what you think and if you want to read on.<strong>

**The next chapter will be up at 7 reviews.  
><strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note**: Thank you so much for the reviews and alerts. Your thoughts are my fuel. I really hope you'll enjoy this chapter.

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><p><em>Chapter Two<em>

Blaine staggered into the street, trying to locate the club by watching out for a sign and listening for thumping music. He couldn't hear beyond the bits of karaoke songs breaching from the pub and on this street there wasn't any night club, just some other bars and restaurants that were already closed. He walked around for a bit, hoping Rachel wouldn't follow him immediately and catch him all disorientated on the street.

Eventually, it was a group of skimpy skirts that led him to his destination. The girls passed at the other side of the road and Blaine took a chance, following them around the corner in hopes of success and soon enough a sign came in sight saying "39" with a respectable line of people wanting in. Blaine sighed and hoped waiting around there like a tool would be worth it in the end. He liked clubs and dancing but going all alone _was_ kind of sad. Sure he could always claim to be waiting on someone, and really that wasn't even a lie but he had no idea if she would actually show up.

Slowly, Blaine got closer to the entrance, being slightly pushed forward by some latecomers. The bouncer asked Blaine for his license. He produced it willingly being used to the process. He was twenty-three but at home he had to show his ID at any chance and apparently here he had to do the same. It just irked him a little since this night club, like most in Europe opened its doors to everyone older than eighteen. He shrugged it off, when he was forty someday this would come in handy.

After he payed seven pounds to get in and the bouncer returned his license with a curt nod, Blaine made his way through the door and down a narrow stairway which led to the chic cellar club. The walls were black, safe for some white and green cubes as decoration. There were places to sit in dim light, a long bar lit up indirectly by LEDs behind the rows of liquor bottles, a DJ isle at the far wall and an already crowded dance floor in the middle of it all. The crowd was _mixed_, if he was polite but his initial thought was that he'd involuntarily stumbled into an open audition for the next season of Jersey Shore. The music was appropriately dull and mindless enough as well.

He took a deep breath and headed for the bar, ordering a Gin and Tonic for while he waited. He decided to give Rachel until midnight to come find him. This gave her another hour to show up. If she didn't he'd call it a night and see if Grayson still needed a Counter Strike partner. But he had a feeling she would come, she just had to. God knows, he really hoped she would.

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><p>Rachel Berry shifted on her bar stool, watching her friend Tina sing a beautiful rendition of 'True Colors'. She could hardly focus on it though. The American had left half an hour before but she still thought about his offer. Usually when someone tried to chat her up she discarded them quickly. Rachel Berry didn't sleep around. She didn't get with men she met at a bar. The only relationships she had, had stemmed from friendships and even those hadn't proved very fertile. She was too wary to wander off with strangers or get distracted from her career by some hazel eyed Adonis. No matter how cute his smile was, how shiny the eyes or how sexy the accent.<p>

But she couldn't deny there was something about Blaine. He was really really good looking and seemed sweet and kind and he was from New York City to top it all. The city of her dreams, her one true love. She wanted to talk to him about it, having seen it from a tourist point of view, racing her Dads from museum to museum but she had never really talked to an actual citizen. But he was gone now and her principles forbid her from chasing after him. She just wouldn't.

"Rachel!", Mercedes punched her in the arm, ripping her out of her internal dialogue.

"Ow", she complained, rubbing the now sore spot, "What was that for?"

"For ignoring me the last five times I called your name", her friend said with raised eyebrows, tilting her head with pursed lips, "You know if you wanna go after him, you should"

"I don't want to go after him", she shot and then paused, "I mean..who are you talking about?"

"Damn, chill out, he's fine girl, we all think so", Mercedes sighed and Sugar nodded fiercely in agreement.

"I would go with you", she offered, leaning further over the table which made her seem like a caramel colored little hen, waiting for some food to fall off the table that she could pecker on. Some food in the shape of a hot American she could get with if Rachel wasn't interested.

A weird image of Sugar pecking all over Blaine filled Rachel's mine and her forehead furrowed in response.

"No, I'll go alone", Rachel said resolutely, decidedly not wanting Sugar anywhere near him.

She rose from her stool and grabbed her jacket and purse. Really that did it. Before Sugar could get any ideas, Rachel was gonna claim her date. She wouldn't just pass him on to Sugar.

"Hey where are you going?", Tina said through the applause of her just finished number, then took a good look at Rachel and understood.

"Hey, if he tries anything funny, call me", she said, holding Rachel's wrist, "And don't drink anything you haven't seen being made. Best just stick to beer bottles that you open. And don't let them out of your hands"

"I promise, Mom", Rachel said, swept into her friends arms by a drunk rugby player and a wave of affection, holding her tightly. Sometimes Tina worried about her more than her own parents. Almost more than Sam, which was a hard thing to do.

"Go geddit, girl", Mercedes said as goodbye, not bothering to get up and Sugar tried one last time to be Rachel's 'wingwoman' but the latter wouldn't be fooled. Her friend was hot for Blaine but Rachel had dibs because he had asked her to come, not Sugar and as long as Rachel wasn't stepping down, Sugar had no business pining over him.

She gave a last salute to her friends and walked out of the bar, getting some more pats on her back for her song, like she usually did at the joint after every number she sung. Outside, she strode towards the "39" and wondered what the hell she was doing. Was she just gonna walk in there and be like, "Hey, your weird coming on to me miraculously worked, now entertain me"? Wouldn't that be painfully embarrassing.

Oh good god, yes it would be. What was she gonna say to him? Wouldn't he be painfully smug that he'd got her to come in the first place – and alone? If he was really meeting a friend like he'd said wouldn't she be the odd one out? Maybe she should get Sugar after all. But no. Not her. Mercedes and Tina didn't want to go. And she didn't have to go either. It was stupid, it was embarrassing. And wost of all, it could end up being _humiliating_. A fate worse than death for Rachel Berry.

She turned around and walked in the opposite direction. She couldn't go back to the pub and act like nothing had happened, that would make her look like too much of a wimp. So she would just take the last bus and go to bed. Yeah, that was a decent plan. Just forget it ever happened.

_You're not going home now Rachel Barbra Berry_, her inner voice scolded, _what kind of baby are you, what's the worst that can happen?_

_I don't know, he could be a serial killer and I could be walking right into his trap_, she disputed herself quickly.

_- You got Tina and Sam on Speed Dial and a knife and pepper spray._

_It could be really embarrassing if I show up and there's just us and I have nothing to say._

_- When did you ever in your life have nothing to say, Rachel Berry?_

_But...he could try to...to kiss me. Or something._

_- Oh my God, he could kiss you. How horrendous! What would you ever do if a good looking Yankee wanted to lay those exquisite sexy lips on yours and smooch you for a while, how would you cope? Get your head out of your ass and turn around right now._

"Ah, fuck it", Rachel mumbled to yourself and turned again, heading back towards the "39" before she could change her mind. She would just peek inside, see if he was still there and then maybe talk to him. Just to see if they had anything in common. And if he tried anything funny she would tell him where to shove it. It couldn't be that bad now could it? She could always just leave. Nothing to worry about. That's what big girls did, they took charge and control and came when they pleased and left when they pleased. She was a big girl. _Showtime._

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><p>Blaine sat at the bar sipping on his second Gin and Tonic and watched the minutes tick by on his swiss watch. Ten more and he would be out of there. He winced in regret, thinking about his last night in Europe spent with a dude on a rancid couch shooting CGI people in the head. He could try to pick up some other girl but the joint didn't really hold a lot of 10s (or even many 7s or 8s for that matter) and somehow he doubted any other girl would manage to hold his attention like Rachel did. Even if she was really hot. Maybe Halle Berry. But the odds for her turning up where even slimmer than for Rachel to do so.<p>

Plus, he didn't really want to find some cheap substitute. It wouldn't do for him and it would be kinda unfair to the girl. It was just no use either way. He wanted Rachel and it would be her or his hand tonight. Those were the option. He glanced down at his right hand clutching his drink and sighed.

_Maybe it's just us then_, he thought and downed the rest of the drink. The glass hit the counter with a cling and Blaine's deep, resignating sigh was almost louder than the music.

He's just accepted that it was probably time to give up when a little hand tapped his shoulder and he turned around to find Rachel standing there a little awkwardly. He could feel a huge grin rip at his mouth, splitting his face in half with undisguiseable joy. She'd really come.

_Ha, I might not be needing you after all_, he thought triumphantly, addressing the hand he wiped dry on his pants in case she wanted to shake it. She didn't.

"So my friends were super boring and went home but I wasn't tired yet, so I figured I could as well drop by", she said casually and waited for him to reply with something equally as casual as that.

"That's nice", he said lamely instead, "I'm glad your friends are boring then"

She nodded with a small smile. And he nodded with a huge idiot grin. She could as well be Halle Berry. And then he stared at her for some odd seconds, thinking that she was way above his league and really he had no idea how to communicate with women of her caliber at all.

He was dimly aware that this hadn't always been the case. In fact, the week before the last he was pretty sure he could've gotten an Italian model to hook up with him but something about Rachel's dark eyes and tough demeanor made him feel twelve and unprepared.

"So..", she started and pursed her lips, blinking up at him.

"So...", he said, wobbling his head in a way that felt unnatural and awkward even to him, "Do you want a drink?"

Rachel let out a somewhat relieved breath as she nodded, "A beer in a bottle. With the cap on"

He nodded at her request (he was doing an awful lot of nodding this night, his neck started to hurt a bit) and headed to the bar, bringing two unopened beers back with him. Rachel produced her key chain and opened the bottles swiftly, passing his on with a little _clunk _for a cheer.

"Let's sit down, shall we?", Blaine suggested, hoping to get to know her a little and hopefully retrieve a bit of his lost charm, if he could get some more coherent words out that was. She followed him willingly to the slightly separated lounge area where the light was a little brighter and the music a little less thumping.

They sat down at a free spot in the corner. It was less an actual table, than just a low white plastic cube standing by the lime green padded sofa which lined the entire back wall. These little tables and others, slightly higher lime green padded cubes were scattered around the lounge and most were occupied by skimpy skirts and weird guys wearing Ed Hardy shirts.

"Classy joint", Blaine mused sarcastically.

"Yeah", Rachel agreed with a smile, "Nice of your friend to order you here and then leave. Or where is he?"

That's right, Blaine had forgotten his cover story, "He, um, well, he couldn't make it. But I wanted to wait in case you decided to show up"

He could tell Rachel saw straight through him but gladly – probably because she was a really good person – she didn't call his bluff and played along, "Lucky for me that you waited then"

Blaine grinned, a sincere, wide, toothy grin because that was just sweet. If she'd really been the cocky kind of stuck up bitch like she'd pretended to be earlier at the pub she wouldn't have let him off the hook. It made him honestly happy that she wasn't. It would have been a crying shame, for someone so beautiful and outworldly like her. There was a pure, kind person beneath the stunning exterior and it made Blaine almost proud that he had somehow known and seen through her armor of superiority. Or maybe she was like one of these gang girls that were horrible and humiliating with their friends 'round but nice in seclusion. He opted for the first possibility because he wanted to rather believe that one.

"So, tell me about you, Rachel", he said, not because he suddenly remembered how to talk to women again but because he really wanted to know and when you were legitimately curious, talking became a lot easier, "How does one get pipes like yours?"

"Good genes", Rachel smirked, "My biological Mom is a Musical Theater actress, she's been Elphaba on the West End for the longest time"

"Wow, that's impressive, I loved Wicked in New York"

"I've seen it too when I was there but my Mom will always be the best wicked witch for me. Power of habit"

"Are you an actress too?"

"Not yet", Rachel scooted a little closer to drown out the music, "I'm finishing college and then I want to go audition for schools"

"What's your major?", Blaine was aware that he was grilling her a little but now that words flowed he wanted to put them to good use.

"Publishing", she replied, not seeming to mind at all, "It seemed logical with my brother dealing with all that stuff. I always have something to fall back on now and Sam could always get me a job if the acting thing blew over"

"That's very wise"

"I don't know, I lost a lot of time", Rachel said in thought, her lips pursed.

"But you got your bases covered now, that's a good thing and your still young"

"I'm twenty-two", she protested, "That's not _young_ in show-biz years"

"Listen, I can't imagine someone with your talent not making it big in some way, it'll be fine"

"That's very sweet of you to say", she smiled a 800 watt smile which made him sit straighter all by itself.

"What can I say, I'm a sweet guy", he shrugged, mainly to regain some sort of casual posture, rather than practically sitting in her lap like a puppy waiting for treats.

"I hate to say it but I kinda begin to think so too", she said and her eyes glimmered even in the dim light.

Blaine grinned stupidly but he couldn't do anything about that or about bursting out the next question, "Do you want to dance?"

"Sure", she replied with a smirk and Blaine's face sretched into another grin. He was on his feet in no time, waiting for her to follow him.

He attempted to lead her onto the stuffy dance floor but she quickly took over. She was tiny and a woman so she could part the masses for them with a wink and a smile and step into the opening spaces with ease, creating a pathway for Blaine to follow her. She took his hand so she wouldn't loose him. That little touch sent shivers down his spine that had nothing to do with the hideous remix of a nineties song blaring from the speakers. But then she let go and stopped, apparently happy with their position somewhere near the DJ booth and turned around flinging her hair.

"They totally butchered this song", she yelled over the beat and Blaine laughed and screamed back how he agreed.

But Rachel started moving her hips anyway. Like she had on the stage earlier and Blaine was once again a goner. Her moves were hypnotic and he hardly noticed that he himself had started dancing, he just kept starring at her, his eyes falling down her frame occasionally.

This damned soft curve of her hips, the tiny waist and her boobs in that top, holy cow. He couldn't get over it.

He wanted to keep looking but then Rachel's hand flew to rest flat on his chest and she got on her tiptoes to talk next to his ear, "You look at me all funny"

Blaine coughed quietly, the spot where she touched him burning up and he couldn't resist the temptation to wrap his arm around her waist, resting his hand on her back, just above her exquisite ass.

"It's just that you're really beautiful", he confessed and then leaned in closer, "And very sexy"

Rachel laughed like she thought he was joking but he hoped that she knew he wasn't.

She leaned back again but their hands stayed where they were as they kept dancing.

Blaine lost track of time. They spun around together and before long they both got closer and more handsy. It wasn't anything scandalous but he made sure she knew that he was interested in going through some of these motions in another location. Hell, he would've had sex with her right there on the floor but he was pretty sure Rachel wasn't into _that_ kind of attention.

* * *

><p>Rachel had turned to dance with her back to his front and she felt his hard-on distinctively as their hips mashed together. She wanted to giggle but her stomach had knotted itself into a dense pit, spreading heat and tingles through her body. She couldn't breathe and was as amused as she was turned on. Blaine was a good dancer, he led her around with ease, always a reassuring hand somewhere on her body, sometimes wandering, sometimes pulling her closer. Either which way doing a damn fine job making her dizzy.<p>

She wanted him, there was no denying. She'd thought he was good looking in the pub but right now she wanted to jump him. When he'd told her he found her sexy he'd sent a current through her body that seemed to glow after because god, could she repay the compliment. He had short thick pitch black hair that lay in soft curls on his head as if it was waiting to be ruffled, she could hardly resist the temptation.

Blaine was a little taller than her but she was tiny, meaning he wasn't very tall either, she still could've reached into his hair easily. The short height didn't matter though, his frame was defined and very well-proportioned, whenever she got to touch his back or stomach she could feel the right amount of muscle tense and relax under the white T-shirt he wore. Overall, his body seemed to die for but his face...his face was what kept her staring, kept her looking up to memorize one or the other feature at a time.

Features like his almost almond shaped, bright hazel eyes, his pronounced but not broad lips, his slightly wider nose and that masculine, angular jawline, topped only by his high cheek bones giving him an extra edge. He was a beauty.

"Where's the catch?", she thought aloud but she must've looked at him in a way that made it seem like she was talking to him.

"What?", he asked her, louder than she'd been, to get through over the music.

"I just...", she started, not really sure if he was meant to know what she'd thought at this point but then decided it couldn't hurt, "Um, I was just wondering what your catch is, if you're a serial killer or a Republican or something"

Blaine laughed heartily and pulled her closer to answer, "Not a Republican, not a serial killer either, promise"

"Well, that's a relief"

"But I do have some weird habits", he said.

"Tell me", she ordered and he teased her a bit, bringing his chin up, mimicking uncertainty and then nodded, as if she'd won his inner struggle.

"I sing in the shower, I sing along to TV-show themes, I really like Celine Dion, and I mean absolutely un-ironically and -", he paused and his features changed from animated to serious, "And I'm leaving tomorrow to go back to New York"

Rachel could feel her eyes pop as the rest of her face fell apart.

"Tomorrow?", she repeated and noticed somewhere distant that they had stopped moving.

"Yeah, it's my last night in Europe", he said, his brow furrowed with something that might have been regret.

Rachel nodded. She could've asked him earlier what he was doing in London and how long he was staying. She'd just kind of assumed he would be there for longer but until that moment she wasn't aware that the fact that he wasn't made her quite sad.

"That's the catch", she muttered.

He looked down to her and held her gaze. The intensity of it made her break the connection, she'd just felt something very weird. Like he'd seen inside of her, stripped off layer after layer and saw her, raw and pure and something had clicked within her, running through her whole body, hitting her like an earthquake. But it wasn't the ground that was trembling, it was her.

She had a massive, big fat idiotic crush on him. _What the hell?_

Probably just because he was leaving. Why else would her stupid drama-relishing brain decide to fall for a guy she knew for about three hours? She always did that, she radiated towards men she couldn't have or who were totally wrong for her.

Now Blaine...Blaine would probably be totally right. But he would be totally right at the other side of the world. And that was apparently enough for her twisted mind to lock on him. The perfect target to cause her heartache. She cursed herself inwardly.

"We should have shots", she declared, wanting to numb her silly brain and cushion the blow of her revelation.

Grabbing his hand, she strode through the dancing crowd and finally scooted into a vacant seat at the bar. Blaine waited behind her and attempted to hand her money for the Tequila shots she'd ordered but she waved him off.

"I got it", she said and passed his glass and lemon on.

She swept the flesh of the lemon over the top of her hand, sprinkled it with salt from the little shaker the bartender had given her and waited for Blaine to do the same so they could cheer.

When he was ready she mustered a brave smile, "Let's toast to a memorable last night"

"Let's", he agreed and they clinked the glasses together.

Rachel threw her head and the liquor back, soothing the bitter taste with licking the salt off and biting the lemon in a rapid succession.

Blaine hit his empty glass on the bar just seconds after she did and they smiled at each other for a second.

"It's almost three in the morning", Rachel said, "They'll gonna close soon and if we want to get our coats out before the big run we should leave now"

"But I'm not tired yet", Blaine said, a glimmer of sadness in his eyes and he looked and sounded more like a toddler that wanted five more minutes to play. He was the most adorable sexy thing in the world.

"Neither am I", she said quickly. She_ was_ but she didn't want the night to end yet, saying goodbye would mean for good and she wasn't ready for that yet, "We can go for a walk, watch London at night"

Blaine's face lit up at the idea and he almost instantly demanded her coat stamp to pick it up for her and told her to wait by the staircase.

They parted and Rachel's heart hammered to her throat. It seemed like the crush was intensifying by the second rather than the minute. _Stop it stupid brain, stop it, stop it, stop it._

She reached the door and produced her cell phone from her purse, typing a quick text to Tina.

_He's a dreamboat. But he leaves tomorrow for the States :(_

Just when she'd pressed send, Blaine was back at her side, handing her her black leather jacket before slipping into his navy blue H&M coat.

"Shall we then?", he asked and held out his arm gallantly for her to slip into, like a true gentleman and her heart took a leap.

"We shall", she nodded and scooped her arm under his, following his lead up the stairs.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Thoughts?<strong>_


	3. Chapter 3

**_**Author's Note:**_** Thank you for the reviews. I notice nothing much has happened yet and that will change in this chapter, hopefully to your liking. Please note that this is a longer story so the action will come bit by bit, like in a real novel. I will try to keep updating quickly and hearing your opinions always helps with that. The more you feed me, the more I'm inspired and pushed to write. I hope that, if we work together, we can make this a good fic. All it takes is your help and thoughts :)

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><p><em>Chapter Three<em>

Out in the street it took them a second to adjust to the colder night air. Blaine saw Rachel wrap her jacket tighter around her body while he tried to swallow a shiver. If she continued to hug herself he would have to surrender his coat and despite his chivalry and absolute willingness to give up any clothing to keep her warm, he was glad when she seemed to acclimate and walked at his side with more ease.

"So what do you think of London?", she asked him as they walked down the street, he had no idea where they were going but he trusted her that she did, plus he was mildly drunk and didn't really care as long as she wouldn't leave.

"I love it here", he said truthfully, "You guys ain't cheap as they say but the museums are great and the culture is broad, like take the West End alone for instance and, just the air here, really. It's a little like New York but not quite. It feels very safe here, safe and sophisticated and cultured. Well-mannered. A little more private and maybe less warm but not in a way that annoys me. I like privacy like that"

He didn't know how much of his picture of the city stemmed from prejudice, from him thinking Europeans and Brits as a whole must be smart and cultivated people just because it was a common American thing to think but it was what he felt. Rachel didn't seem to mind, she just smiled.

"That's what I loved about New York, like, the opposite of what you just said", she mused, "The noise, the crazy people, the fact that you can get donuts at four in the morning. Everything stirs with life and it's exciting and big and I don't know. To me being in _New York is like_ falling in love. Over and over again, every minute"

He had to look at her, guessing the expression of the pleasant memory would paint her features nicely and it did. She gazed into the wide, probably not seeing some dark Kensington High Street stores but Times Square in front of her inner eye. Blazing with light and noise and dirt and she was most definitely missing it. He was missing it too, he thought. It was home and suddenly his chest was torn in conflict.

He was happy to go back, he missed the city, he missed Quinn and Beth and Mike and Wes and oddly enough he even missed work and it would be absolutely amazing to have it all back in less than twenty-four hours. But Rachel...Rachel would be just a memory then. Another face he'd stash away under "Travel Friends", maybe a facebook-contact he'd stop talking to eventually but all in all just a footnote in his life. She would probably shine a little brighter in his accounts, sharper around the edges because she was special but she would still not be really real, not palpable. She'd just be gone. Or better, he'd be gone. That thought stung and hit him in the face colder than the night air, like a slap of regret and desire and an outcry about the injustice.

Why couldn't he just keep her? Get to know her and get a little more lost in her chocolate eyes. And spread those long slim legs for him, dip his head down, down and explore her, bury himself inside of her until she whithered under him, screaming his name.

_Focus._

He couldn't be thinking about sex all the time. It was horribly impolite, as she would put it. Also the way he saw her had shifted since they'd been on their own. She was classy and fun and smart, cordial and kind. And while he still very much wanted to rip down her jeans with his teeth, he was aware that she deserved better than a desperate fuck just to have the notch in the bedpost. She was too good for that. He was absolutely gonna sleep with her if she was game but it wouldn't be some mindless fling for him. It would mean something. Which almost made him forget about the whole thing. Because he'd be gone and then he'd be attached. Or even more attached than he already was.

On their way to nowhere in particular, they quickly fell into an easy conversation, skimming over as many topics as possible, both knowing they didn't have much time. To Blaine's enjoyment she seemed just as reluctant to have the night end as he was and she kept coming up with questions about everything and nothing. He told her how he grew up in Ohio, at an all boy's school, how he'd went on to NYU to study politics and creative writing and had decided to stay. They found that they had quite a similar taste in music and movies, except that Blaine was by far crazier about The Beatles than she was, something he noted seemed weird since he always believed Brits got the love for the band fed with mother's milk. And Rachel scolded him for never having seen _Breakfast at Tiffany's_, which he idly promised to fix.

She was very easy to talk to, a great listener and intriguing talker but he noticed the change in her voice when a certain topic came up, her tone changing from curious chatter to a more wary note, making her voice more high-pitched and pressing. And she was trying to suppress it which made it all the more obvious. He was very tempted to call what painted her voice _jealousy_.

"You live with a woman and a kid?", she asked incredulously and she sounded so stunned that it was a miracle she didn't stop mid-stride, frozen in the street.

"You make it sound a lot more scandalous than it is", he said merely, knowing full well she wanted more information and he would've lied if he claimed he didn't enjoy taunting her a little bit. It was basically just the purest form of reassurance that she was interested in him too. Of course her shudders whenever their skin brushed could have told him as much but he couldn't distinct those clearly enough from his own.

"Well, I just wonder how it works", she said, careful to keep any strain off her voice, "Like, does the child call you Dad or?"

Blaine laughed, "No, Beth calls me Laine, which is a step up from Nay which she used to call me before. She turned three a little before I left for Europe"

"But why?", Rachel asked and he knew she wasn't talking about why Beth couldn't say his name right. (She still had a little problem pronouncing 'b's, nothing to be concerned with, though if it persisted he might suggest Quinn to take her to a speech therapist, just to be sure.)

"I met Quinn before she even got pregnant, I tried to hit on a friend of hers, Santana, which was useless because Santana has been seeing Brittany for ages – which I hadn't known first of course and they had a jolly good time with that – but the four of us, and my friends Mike and Wes kinda stayed in contact and Quinn and I got close. I was there when all the shit with Puck happened, Beth's Dad. They broke up before she knew about the baby and they tried another time when she'd figured it out but they're like fire and water, it just doesn't work"

He looked to see if Rachel was still keeping track but she seemed unfazed by the mass of info, rather the opposite, she was hungry to learn more, her eyes never leaving his.

"But they had moved into a great old penthouse with their two paychecks and although Puck was still willing to help out with a bit of the rent, Quinn was never going to make the cut. I'd just started writing for the Times so I had enough money to support myself and possibly others, so we decided that I could as well move in. By the time Beth was old enough for Quinn to go back to work, I'd finished college and worked mostly from home so I could look after the kid for her and I had someone to help me put food in my belly. Because I'm a hideous cook. We're there for each other. Puck drops by every now and then, he's with a nice lady called Lauren now who keeps setting his head straight. She's one hell of a woman but it's what he needs and she makes him pay his child support on time and Beth loves her. It all turned out quite well, considering."

Rachel tried her hardest, he could tell, but she couldn't keep the wary look off her face, the worry that peeked through her words when she next spoke.

"And you and Quinn never...", she left the rest hanging there and then added in a meek attempt to be elusive, "Isn't that terribly confusing for Beth, you know, as an image?"

Blaine worked hard to keep from chuckling, he relished in her unease at the idea of him living with a woman, "Quinn and I were never attracted to each other. She's beautiful, don't get me wrong but totally not my type and we're too different, we basically live on discussions. We bicker like siblings. Really, if I think about it, she's like the male version of my brother Coop, so. Also she's a blonde and I never felt attracted to a blonde before"

He saw Rachel grin and blush furiously at his side, his fingertips tingling with the blind wish to cub her cheeks and run his tongue over her lips to part them for him, to wound her into a hug and kiss her senseless, just to keep that blush there.

Instead he continued, doing Rachel the favor of pretending he hadn't seen her reaction, "As for Beth, she knows who her father is and she knows who I am. I get to be the cool uncle. Though I do kind of raise her when I can't help it. I very much love her, she's one of the best things that ever happened to me and she made me grow up so much. I don't know where I'd be without her and Quinn, they're family"

Rachel nodded and Blaine wanted to linger on her beautiful face but salty air hit his nostrils and he looked up because that was new sensory input.

"Wow", it escaped him at the sight ahead. A set of gates, no, it was a bridge, with tall pillars shimmering pastel green in the moonlight and decked with Art Nouveau ornaments rose in front of him and it looked so majestic and serene he had to take a second to appreciate it.

"I know", Rachel muttered, walking on and finally turning over her shoulder, "Hammersmith Bridge. She's a beauty"

She trailed on and he followed. He took in the lights from the bridge and the ones from the city reflecting in the muddy Thames water, wallowing in the sight and the magic of the moment. It was beautiful and he'd forgotten that it was cold and he saw Rachel's legs move and glanced up, passing her firm, gorgeous ass and she smiled at him when they'd reached the middle of the rope bridge where the steal chords met, joining below the railing and granting free view over the two sides of the river and glistening water.

"People don't pay as much attention to her like they do with the Tower Bridge because she isn't as pompous but they really should", she mused on, "I think she's prettier even, more frail and feminine. The Tower Bridge is so burly and broad. Hammersmith's a lady"

"I'm really glad you showed me this", he said and stood beside her, placing his hands only inches away from hers, holding on to the railing and taking a deep breath, "Did you know you wanted to come here or did it just happen?"

"I don't really know but I think when we passed McDonalds I kinda knew where I was going", just at the mentioned burger joint her tummy growled and she laughed loudly. It sounded like a very adorable hick-up.

"Woman, we need to feed you", Blaine exclaimed and laughed with her, "Why didn't you say something earlier? We could've stopped to get you some fries"

"Chips", she corrected, "And I wanted to show you this first, I kinda had the feeling you would appreciate it. I'd have more places to show you but you'll be gone by tomorrow"

She sighed and it was the same sincere regret he felt resonating within himself too, "Why didn't I meet you my first night here?"

He didn't really ask her, it was more like an open question to the city around them, or the universe, maybe, "We would've had more time"

Rachel sighed again, heavier this time, aware as it seemed of the thick meaning behind his last words and she used the momentum of that big breath to fall into his side as she exhaled. It was a deliberate move masked as a playful caving but he didn't mind. He wanted her close. After such a short time it already seemed unbearable to leave her again.

It was ridiculous really, he hadn't known her ten hours ago. He would've been fine going back to New York and his life and he would've been jolly happy about it. But now he wouldn't be. He would miss this strange new girl and her enlightening presence in his world. Amping up the sounds, intensifying the colors, sharpening up the edges. Everything seemed clearer when she was there. Except when she clouded his senses with what followed.

Her free hand curved ever so timidly around his and her cheek turned closer into his upper arm, "I can't tell if I'm drunk or if you're making it spin"

Blaine's breathing suddenly became shallow and he could understand her musings fairly well and some song he knew played through his brain at random, _I feel the earth move under my feet..._

"What is spinning?", he asked mindlessly, entwining his fingers with hers and that tiny touch was enough to send his heart galloping through his chest at a frantic pace. It was remarkable, the effect she had on him. He felt like he'd boarded a roller coaster.

His head was _definitely_ spinning when she tugged at his arm and turned him around to face him, the moonlight reflecting in her eyes, her olive complexion glowing with the yellow street light.

She looked like someone out of a very dizzy dream. A very very pleasant dizzy dream.

"The world", she laughed, as if it was obvious, "The world is spinning...are you doing that?"

He laughed and took both her hands, swaying them from side to side between them, "Nah, you're just drunk"

They stayed like this for a while, swaying and laughing, then grinning, then smiling and then after a while Rachel's features softened into a thoughtful, gorgeously puzzled kind of state.

"I want you to know that I never do this", she said and it was barely a whisper, hardly loud enough to drown out the running river beneath them.

"Do what?", he asked but he was already leaning in further, every inch earned with a thousand rushed heartbeats and his throat drying out. He licked his lips quickly and he was just in time before she answered his question with something other than words.

Their lips met in what seemed like the resolve of a crescendo, a big explosion, setting off somewhere deep inside, so deep he wasn't sure he'd ever felt anything there before but now he did and it would've frightened him if he hadn't been so busy with getting more of her.

* * *

><p>Rachel was soaring. It was a funny feeling because she could actually barely feel her feet on the ground anymore, feeling light as a feather but Blaine still held her tightly, clasping her to his body and rooting her on the spot. She felt like a kite. Or how kites would feel if they, well, if they had feelings.<p>

She sunk into the kiss and was shocked with herself. She hadn't been lying, she literally never did this. She had not once in her life kissed someone she'd met the same night. She figured there was a first time for everything after all as his fingers clasping her hair. She felt a little naughty, a little dirty and the fact that it was so so wrong, that she didn't know him well enough and that her whole crush on him would have to be temporary (if only for practicability) made it feel thrillingly right. Blaine nibbled at her lower lip, grazing his teeth tauntingly over the brittle skin before she granted him access.

Their tongues darted out to meet somewhere in the middle, hesitant at first, still figuring out a certain choreography of where to move limbs, where not to hit teeth against teeth and how to steady themselves so they wouldn't slip into the Thames by accident. Breathing was an issue too since they both seemed not big fans of it, preferring to keep their mouths interlocked. They found a pretty decent solution with breathing through their noses, except Blaine would moan quietly whenever Rachel repositioned her hands on his body.

It was always a little dance, kissing someone for the first time but Blaine was good at it and Rachel was drunk and horny enough not to hold back which proved to be a fantastic combination.

"Oh my god", she muttered while still attached to his mouth, "I don't do stuff like this"

"Neither do I", Blaine breathed and she was pretty sure that wasn't all the way true but she didn't mind, not as his hand traveled south and grabbed her ass, pulling her against his hips where she could feel him hard against her thighs. It was all heat and chemistry, they'd found their rhythm and neither of them thought of parting. She couldn't think about how uncomfortable any possible passers-by must have felt by that very public display of sexual attraction. Fortunately her mind was too clouded to dwell on a thought like that.

They'd been kissing for a while when her lower back hit the railing and Blaine pushed even further into her, she was dizzy and she could feel her lips starting to tear open but she couldn't get herself to care. His one hand had wandered from her hip – where his companion slipped easily under her leather jacket – up to her face and he pushed her chin slightly down to open her mouth wider to gain more space to claim. A low, guttural moan escaped her, meeting no defenses and she mindlessly broke free from his lips, finding his fingers on her chin and swiping her tongue over the tips, eventually sucking on his thumb. Blaine growled lowly and his erection twitched up against her, making her smile just before he drew her face back onto his lips.

Their breathing came in harsher and deeper, more frantic huffs as if they were suddenly scared they couldn't get enough of each other and they were pulling on fabric, on hands and arms and biting lips and clashing tongues and teeth together in a desperate quest for more and Rachel could feel herself getting lightheaded because the oxygen supply seemed to fade, fizzling away from their heat.

Blaine was the first to break away slightly to take a long hard breath and two others before he nudged his forehead against hers, still panting, "Woah"

"I was not expecting this tonight", Rachel panted with him.

"I was just hoping for it", he confessed.

"Oh really?", she asked bemusedly, pecking him playfully on the lips.

"Yes", he said and pecked her back, "Since I saw you molest that microphone stand"

"That's my special move to lure unsuspecting tourists into my spider-web"

"Argh", he mocked defeat, his voice quiet, he didn't need to speak up because she was just an inch away from him, "And I walked right into the trap"

"That's right and now I will devour and then kill you", Rachel joked, surprised that she still didn't feel weird yet.

For heaven's sake, she was locking lips with a total stranger, standing at impossible proximity with someone she'd met mere hours ago. But somehow Blaine didn't feel strange to her anymore. She wondered when that had happened. When she'd started to trust him. Because she did, that was sure. She couldn't really name a reason, just that she felt very strongly that Blaine would never lie to her. Not about big things, things that matter. She was sure of it and that made all the difference, even if it really didn't matter because he left in the morning. He couldn't tell her that many lies in such a short time anyway.

"When's your flight?", she asked without an agenda, she just wanted to know until when she could be with him.

"At twelve pm tomorrow at Heathrow, I gotta check in at eleven", he informed her, kissing her because it was due time for another round of that.

"Where's your hotel?", Rachel heard herself ask breathlessly and she didn't stop kissing him just so she wouldn't start second guessing what she had just implied.

Blaine scurried slightly away from her and she protested, two fingers gripping his collar as one of his hands flew to the back of his head, scratching it awkwardly.

"I don't really have a hotel", he said sheepishly and Rachel tilted her head in question. Did he like, sleep in the streets? He definitely didn't smell like it, thought her dulled brain.

"Hold on", Blaine said, taking both her hands into his, "Do you have time for a little detour? And a black cab number handy?"

Rachel nodded to both, wondering what the hell she was doing but she was so lost in his softly shining hazel eyes she couldn't bring herself to _not_ be the kind of girl that went to..yeah, wherever he would take her, with a total stranger. To have sex. Probably, if she was assessing the situation right. Which at this point seemed hard to get wrong. Oh god. Rachel Berry had never had a one night stand in her life. What if she was bad at it?

She blindly produced her cell and called a black cab to the Kensington bound side of the bridge and let Blaine drag her there by the hand, explaining to her with many words and a weird story about virtual suicide that he was couchsurfing and staying with some human-shaped hermit crab named Grayson and that this was where they going.

Rachel almost stopped in horror, imagining doing it on the couch of some kid. He must've sensed her discomfort because he squeezed her hand in his and pulled her closer.

"I just got to get my stuff out and leave him a note", Blaine said, "And then we'll go to the airport Holiday Inn. If...I mean, if that's what you want"

He paused then, almost at the place where the cab would pick them up in a bit, "I mean I can have the cab take you home too, make sure you get there safe"

"No", Rachel shook her head at the thought, she wasn't willing to let him go yet, "No, the Holiday Inn sounds fine"

This should feel like the weirdest agreement to have sex ever but in a twisted way it seemed almost normal. Like it was just something she and Blaine easily conversed about like it wasn't a big deal. Like they'd always known and trusted each other and there was nothing kinky about having sex in an airport hotel. Well, she figured there wasn't anything really kinky about that, people probably did it all the time just people that weren't Rachel. Until tonight, tonight she would join the ranks of Holiday Inn-fornicators. Blimey.

They walked on but then she froze again, this time she was the one initiating the abrupt halt and Blaine twirled around, attentive, almost alert for her to change her mind, ready to carry her home safe on his hands if he had to, "What's wrong?"

"I just, um", she stuttered, gosh darn, this was embarrassing but she had to tell him anyway, "Uh, Blaine, I, like I said, I'm, uh, I really did not expect _this_ tonight"

She hoped that he wouldn't make her spell it out, praying that a short glance down at herself and her lips chewed in utter humiliation did their thing to tell him that she hadn't done any...trimming or grooming that should precede the carefully planned out act of intercourse. Her head could might as well have been gleaming red hot, like a traffic light.

_This is excruciating_, she thought, blushing crimson.

But Blaine just let out a relieved kind of huff, "I honestly couldn't care less about that"

Rachel was wary and embarrassed but then he kissed her again, just as hungry and urgent as before and she decided to believe him. She probably would still feel a little awkward getting naked but fine. It wasn't like she had a rain forest down there either just...she didn't look like a nine year old and she didn't know what the American standards were for _that_ sort of, well, hairdo. She was afraid of not meeting it and Blaine being turned off by it. But alas, he kissed her now like his life depended on it, almost missing the cab honking for their attention and Rachel figured she would worry about that later.

The cab driver was silent, even by London measures and Rachel felt her alcoholic high fade as she waited in the car after Blaine had reached his first destination, excusing himself to pack up his stuff.

She was uncertain about the whole plan now. Maybe she should take up on Blaine's offer and have the cab drop her off at home after all? Maybe this was a stupid idea. She hardly knew him. He would leave in the morning and it would hurt to see him go. Plus he kinda had a family back in New York, even if he said him and this Quinn girl were only platonic friends. Rachel still didn't want to be a home wrecker if it turned out he'd stretched the truth a bit. Although she doubted that. Still. She could possibly regret this in the morning.

She rummaged around in her purse because she remembered the text she'd seen calling the cab, a text she had disregarded at the time, being otherwise occupied but now she didn't want to feel so torn and decided to postpone the decision-making by distracting herself.

Her cell phone lit up, showing a text from Tina, a reply to her earlier one about Blaine flying home the next day.

_3:48 AM, Tina CC_

_Well then, what do you have to lose? If you like him, go for it!_

That was odd, usually Tina would caution her. She half _wanted_ Tina to do so, to give her a reason to bail but then Blaine hurried back into the car after stuffing his suitcases in the trunk and finally returned to sit with her. His smile was so blazing and touched such remote places of her heart and mind that she knew she would never leave this vehicle without him, not in a million years.

She wanted that mouth back on her so badly, the physical restraint was painful to endure. She could start undressing him right there on the back seat but she had some courtesy and compassion for the poor cab driver. And she was a well mannered girl. So instead of jumping him she sat beside him, quietly and very careful not to touch him at all so she wouldn't loose it and all the tension and the yearning built up inside her like a huge tsunami wave. Or a hurricane front ready to blister. Or like electricity between them because she could swear he felt it to. The air was almost sizzling in the space between their warm bodies. And everything built up and up and up and up and her skin tingled and her groin burned and she took deep breaths to steady herself, wondering if that was what volcanoes felt like.

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><p><strong>Chapter Four will be posted after 10 reviews.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**_**Author's Note**_****_: _**So here it is, chapter four. Things..move along in this chapter. I hope you will find it satisfying. I'm posting quite quickly after the last because I got to the ten review line quicker and so here we are.

Updating on this fic will likely work this way. I have the plot lined out and my muse is buzzing for it (I'm not promising that it will stay like this but I'm hopeful) – all I can tell you is that reviews harvest my creativity and I got all the tools handy, all I need is the inspiration. So long story short, you drizzle my little garden with your thoughts and opinions and I grow more chapters.

**_M-CONTENT WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF SEX! You will know when. If you want to skip the sex look out of these symbols: "oOo" they will mark the graphic part. _**

**_Consider yourself warned._**

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><p><em>Chapter Four<em>

Every last molecule in Blaine's body was tingling and yearning for Rachel as they sat in the cab, the whole half an hour drive to Heathrow airport. He wanted to touch her so badly all his thoughts narrowed down to her skin, her hair, her lips and in which order to take off her clothes. He wanted to talk to her too but he could only think of obscene stuff, unable to focus on anything other than the fact that she was driving to a hotel with him. To have sex. Unless she changed her mind which he hoped she wouldn't.

He worried that her silence was meaning she was over thinking it but he caught her eyes and they were just as dark, her pupils just as dilated as his surely were. He knew she didn't want to get to anything in the cab and he understood although, frankly, he wouldn't have given a shit about anyone seeing. However, he respected her decision because it wasn't his intent to make her uncomfortable.

So he resolved tried to enjoy the build up and what kind of massive build up that was, he realized in the very brief moment when they got out the car and Rachel helped him unload the trunk. Their fingers brushed at the handle of his second suitcase and it felt like a bolt of lightning struck through his body, shaking him and making him gasp. It was only a touch, a tiny touch of their fingers. However the effect after waiting and restraining so long made it hard to collect himself.

He only got back to real time because the cabbie cleared his throat impatiently by the door, waiting for his money. Blaine payed him while Rachel waited with his luggage and the guy winked at him, wishing him a great night. Rachel looked after the car as it drove out of the curb and Blaine took over his suitcases, careful not to touch Rachel again or he would have to get her naked right on the sidewalk.

It was five in the morning but the hotel was open 24/7 so the two ladies behind the reception desk still smiled at them like they weren't all awake at an ungodly hour. They must have been the only guests in a while though because Blaine could see them hurriedly tugging away bright green mugs of most likely coffee.

Blaine checked him and Rachel into a room, paying for half a night because he would check out before 11 am and together, him and Rachel rode the elevator up to the room on the forth floor.

It was a plain elevator with a fully reflective surface on all walls. He could see them standing next to each other with a distance from all angles. It was awkward.

The kind of awkwardness that in his experience often preceded sex a la carte; one night stands when you were both aware it was going to happen but you didn't know the other person well enough to diffuse the tension with a joke or it wasn't the right time to start warming up with some crude talk yet. She was chewing on her bottom lip and he was frantically trying to think of something to say.

He'd had a million things he still wanted to ask her from earlier but faced with what they would hopefully do in a minute, he couldn't seem to remember any of it.

"Are you really sure?", he asked her and could've hit himself in the face just when he did. Her changing her mind was the last thing he wanted and there he was, prying on her. Or better inviting her to go back down and leave. Okay, really he was being a perfect gentleman and doing the honorable thing but if that would keep him from getting laid...well, it still would've been the right thing to do. Damn Quinn. This was all her fault, she always hammered it into his brain.

"Respect, courtesy, honesty and for heaven's sake, you never touch a girl when she's too drunk to tell left from right and you are forbidden to even breathe into her direction when she says no", she had preached when they were just starting to become friends and she learned that Blaine was kind of a notorious dater.

Rachel said nothing yet.

"You're not drunk either?", he asked, despite himself.

_Shut it Anderson_, he yelled internally, _you're fucking it all up_.

"I'm not too drunk, actually I think the fresh air and the cab ride sobered me up pretty good", Rachel said, her voice not giving anything away yet.

"But do you, um", Blaine started, "Do you still want to...?"

"Yes", she said, simultaneously with the bing of the elevator, arriving at the floor. She grabbed one of his suitcases by the handle, smiled shyly at him and rolled it after her to figure out where their room was.

He took a deep breath to steady himself, involuntarily shuddering while he pulled the second suitcase after him and followed her. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so nervous before doing it. What was it about this girl that left him so bare and hopelessly green?

"Blaine?", she called him from a corridor to the right, "Found it"

"Okay", he said and to his shock it came out circa sixteen octaves higher than usual.

He cleared his throat and moved to where her voice had called from, finding her at the far end of the left wing corridor, waiting for him to let them inside their room with his key card. Blaine's heart was violently hammering against his ribcage. God, why was he so nervous?

The room smelled just as clean and neat as the rest of the hotel. The furniture was modern but not cold, thanks for the wood worked into the headboard and the other wooden elements to the tables and sideboards. The signature green drapes were slightly open, revealing the window front.

There was a balcony too but Blaine didn't really care about that. Their reflections in the pane were mirroring their actions as they set the suitcases down, slipped out of their shoes and took off their coats, Blaine tossing his over a chair near the bed, Rachel putting hers on a hanger by the door. And then they stood in the middle of the room, by the bed, staring at each other.

They took feeble breaths and Blaine made a tentative step forward, feeling the electricity between them sizzle.

"And you're really sure?", he muttered again, under his breath, his fingertips so ready to start exploring her, both his arms tingling with the impending move he waited for her to approve.

"Are you?", she asked with a hint of impatience mixed in there somewhere.

"Rachel", might as well be blunt, he thought if she asked, "my dick throbs so bad from just sitting in that fucking car with you"

His voice was rough and he took yet another step forward, so close that he could feel her breath on his cheeks. She smiled a tiny smile and licked her lips, her head doing a little wobble she probably wasn't aware of as her eyes fell down onto his crotch.

"I think I can help you with that", she whispered hotly and then Blaine's heart skipped a beat.

**oOo**

His hips buckled into her touch immediately, just as her palm went to cup the bulge in his pants and he had to close his eyes so that they didn't pop out of their sockets. He hadn't been lying, he was throbbing for her, his blood pulsing harshly through the veins and it was almost painful because the fabric of his jeans was so restricting. Rachel seemed to read his mind because the second thing she did was bring her other hand to his hip and undo the three buttons to his pants, pushing them down from his legs.

Blaine opened his eyes at the sensation of more space and more air around his privates, although still hidden under his boxer briefs, it was an improvement. Rachel was staying close to him, her eyes downcast as she proceeded, hatching her thumbs under the waistband of his underwear and slowly rolling it down as well.

Blaine sighed with liberation and in a vain moment had to peak down at his length, fully erect, pointing almost straight upwards between them. Her fingers, her body was so close to him that his dick twitched up on its own. Rachel was chewing on her lips again.

"I haven't done this in a while", she confessed in a barely audible whisper, "And I never...I never did this without, um, _knowing_ a little more about, you know, what was liked. You have to, you have to tell me what is good for you?"

"Rachel", he breathed and it was alien to his ears, hearing himself speak so soft, like a caress, hugging her name, enjoying the syllables, tasting the sound, he wasn't used to talking like this.

He brought his hands up to cup her cheeks, lifting her face to make her look at him. She did so and she still looked so shy and adorable, her eyes huge and brown and deep, searching for guidance, for approval and his chest roared with pride that she was even there in the first place. That she wanted him to tell her how to do it for him, how he liked it. _Fuck_.

"Just touch me", he whispered, his voice breaking with lust and anticipation, he was so fucking turned on, "wherever you feel like it and I'll tell you if it's good, I can tell you all of it, just touch me, Rachel"

He looked back up at her, holding his breath and he could hear her hands moving towards him, his eyes falling down once agaain to see how her fingertips touched his shaft gingerly. He let out that breath he was holding at the touch and wanted to concentrate on the blazing feeling.

His eyes fell shut, along with his forehead falling against hers with a sigh while Rachel's second hand wrapped loosely around his thick length. The pioneer one traced lazy, ghostly patterns up from his groin to the tip. He was circumcised and so the way was easy for her and she seemed curious enough. It was like her fingers were dancing over him and he already felt his stomach tighten with lust and a yearning for release.

"God Rachel, don't stop", he said airily, lips moving against her forehead. He kept perfectly still, his arms hanging by his sides, legs securely on the ground and his breathing shallow. Blaine wanted nothing to distract him from her little touches.

She was quiet and he breathed the flowery scent of her hair, her second hand moving downward, cupping his balls lightly and he cursed. Rachel's movement seized.

"No, god, Rachel, please, go on, please", he begged through gritted teeth and kissed the skin in his reach, "Please, touch-"

His voice faded when she obeyed him, the one hand still lightly resting on the sensitive skin, fingertips brushing his inner thighs enough to make him shiver, while the other was finally closing around his dick.

Blaine groaned and Rachel increased the pressure. He was so hard under her grip,like a rock, she just pulled the thin skin ever so slightly back over the dense tissue underneath but the friction was enough to make him gasp. She felt so amazing, slow and testing but good god, the hot little tiny fingers, her fist balled around him as she slowly started to pump – he had to focus not to come right this second.

"Fuck yes, so good", he growled, "Fuck, Rachel, holy shit"

She seemed to be spurred on by that, her hand clasping tighter around him, pumping faster and harder. He groaned and snapped. He couldn't keep his hands still anymore, they shot up and tangled into her wild hair, tousling it up even more. He lowered his head and nudged her head up with his hands to kiss her. It was messy and wet and desperate, more tongue and teeth than lips, more harsh than tender.

She applied just the right amount of pressure, she could be a little faster for his taste but this way she didn't tire herself so quickly and he was fine with that. More than fine.

He bucked his hips once more into her hand, meeting her rhythm and moaned. She breathed heavier too, possibly strained and he wanted to stop her, wanted to pause her so she wouldn't exhaust her wrist but then she twisted it into another, a new angle, nearly making him erupt over her arms. It took all he had to hold his muscles tight, pull everything together and away from her touch. He thought of fish in the ocean and pancakes. And then fish on pancakes and that helped.

He grabbed her hands, not too hard but enough to make her stop moving, "It's so good, it's so fucking amazing but I'm gonna be useless to you for a while if I come in your hands"

"That makes sense", she was slightly breathless. And she seemed a little proud too.

Blaine chuckled and kissed her again, pulling her close and trapping his hard on in between their bodies. He shuffled out of his pants and briefs that still hung at his ankles, enjoying the friction, rubbing against her jeans. He was fine now, he would be able to keep his excitement contained for a while longer.

Rachel nibbled at his lips but then suddenly pulled away. He winced in protest, eyes flying open to quiz her but she revealed her reason by lifting his shirt rashly, pulling it over his head with a neat pull. He was naked at last, except for the socks but he was already taking care of that, wiggling them off with his toes.

"Now, can you tell me what _you'd_ like me to do?", Blaine asked, stroking her cheek while he unbuttoned her jeans with his other hand. She shuddered when his fingers grazed her skin and he smiled.

"Come on", he muttered and nudged her slightly toward the edge of the bed. She eyed him, sitting down and he could tell by her still chest that she was holding her breath.

Rachel scooted a little further so she sat while Blaine stripped her out of her shirt, revealing a navy blue and white striped cup-bra. Sweet and practical. He smirked, glad that it wasn't something flashy, it wouldn't have fit with the picture he'd pictured of her in his head. He continued quickly to unzip her pants. To get them off of her she had to fully lie down on her back and Blaine yanked at them, a little harder because they were so tight and Rachel had been sweating – something he noted with another smirk – and they clung to her skin.

"Finally", he huffed as the pants hit the ground and she giggled, sitting back up.

She stopped too quickly though, she seemed almost intimidated faced with him as he climbed onto the bed to her, nudging her legs apart. It was funny because she seemed so tough, taking no bullshit and she was so aware of her sexuality, of her body on a stage, so scarily confident but here, intimate like that, she was shy and scared. Like a deer in the headlights.

He was so turned on by her little anxious gasp, it took all his restraint not to rip her panties apart and thrust into her just like that, watch her eyes pop, hear her surprised growl at his intrusion.

But that wasn't right, he wanted her to enjoy herself, he wanted her to be ready for him, wanted her wet and rosy and free of her inhibitions.

First, he had to get her to relax, "How about a massage?"

She nodded slowly and he sat down next to her. It was weird how it almost felt like both of them were virgins and trying this all for the first time, hesitant and curious. Careful to please the other.

"Just kneel", he asked and she followed his suggestion, sitting up on the mattress, facing him.

Blaine mirrored her movements and leaned in close to her, twisting a strand of hair between his fingers to gain access to her neck. She eased a little into the touch and his hands traveled to her back, unsnapping her bra in one swift, trained motion. Carefully and slowly, he took it off of her and tossed it off the bed.

She was holding her breath again, staring at him wide eyed.

"Woah, boobs!", he exclaimed and her face twitched weirdly, before she realized he was kidding and she broke out in giggles, her chest rapidly going up and down, her handful, firm breasts bobbed up and down with the waves of her laughter. The biggest tension was gone from her body.

Blaine laughed too, "Turn around"

She nodded, her face light and happy now and the pitch dark sky he was only barely aware of turned a little brighter shade of blue.

Her back was turned to him now, the tanned olive skin so delicious he wanted to lick every spot, only surpassed by the slender curves, her tiny waist and her narrow hips. He rubbed his hands quickly together, warming them up before they would touch her bare skin. She quivered when he shoved her hair over her right shoulder and kissed the base of her neck. Just a peck to get started.

Rachel hummed under his touches and he quickly found the tense spots, kneading them away. He was very thorough, taking his time to make her really calm and free.

He just couldn't keep his distance, each sigh, each moan drew him closer to her, made him harder yet. When her head fell to the side, exposing her gorgeous long neck to him, he closed the rest of the distance, pressing his body flush against her back and licked along the small of her neck as his hands wrapped around her body.

She was like wax under his grip, molding into his frame, breathing low and even. Blaine felt accomplished. Rachel was relaxed now and his next step was to get her trembling for him, to get her ready.

He trailed his hands up to her breasts, slowly running her palms over the soft skin, she moaned quietly and tensed again, but in a good way he hoped.

"Do you like this?", he asked her because he had been with some women who were very sensitive there and didn't like like to be touched in that area because it hurt them, "Please be honest"

"It's okay", she whispered, "You can go harder, if you like"

Blaine chuckled, _that I can do_. He pinched her nipples and then grabbed her with force, scratching down at her sides on the way down. Her hands reached behind her body and snaked into his hair, pulling his head back down onto her neck and shoulder again. She drew in a sharp breath when his hands moved further down, teasing at her hip bones before slowly going down.

He found soft short curls and smiled again, she was so silly to think he would mind that. She was perfect, with as much hair as she wanted, he really couldn't give less of a damn. He nibbled at her neck and finally, answering to her arching her body upwards to meet his fingers, he worked them in between her folds, finding her wet already.

"Oh God", she moaned and buckled into the touch, "Blaine"

"What do you want me to do?", he huffed, low and gnarly, his fingers digging deeper into her.

"Touch me", she whimpered, "More"

And he did. He tweaked her clit between his fingertips and then moved one hand lower, dipping one finger in, then two, keeping the other stroking her.

"Fuck", she winced and withered, just like he'd imagined as he jammed his fingers an out of her, getting her dripping just like he wanted her too. He wanted to fuck her senseless right this moment but he needed her to be the one to tell him to go ahead.

"Do you want it?", he asked her roughly.

"Stop asking me this and fucking do it", she ordered under her breath. He surely wouldn't be told twice.

He released her, but only for so long it took to turn her around and rip her panties off. He grabbed her right from her sitting position, discarded the remaining fabric and put her in the center of the bed, spreading her legs.

She lay there, bare and flushed and looked up at him, chest going up and down with deep huffs, her hands wandering up his arms. He dipped down to kiss her one last time and then aligned them, she helped, wrapping around him one more time to guide him, position him so he could glide right in.

She groaned when he did and his jaw dropped. He slid into her slowly, inch by inch until he couldn't go any further and just gave them both a second to savor the sensation, her filled up and him hugged and clenched by her tightness. It sucked the air right out of his lungs. He would've cursed if he'd been able to talk.

Rachel was the one to initiate the movement, rolling her hips into him and he quickly responded. They moved in waves, perfectly in sync. Slow at first, Blaine pulling out almost all the way just to reclaim her again fully. Each time he hit her walls she let out another low moan and he went faster, closer and softer. Only to amp up the pressure as her fingernails dug into his skin. Soon enough he was thrusting and pushing, working them both into a mindless frenzy. Their scents mixed and their sounds mingled into a dirty symphony.

Dawn broke outside but to him it seemed like she was doing it, making everything lighter. He kept looking at her face, eyes locked together so intensely he blushed.

Really everything was so intense now. The colors, the scents, everything he felt, his blood was loud running through his ears but her moans were louder, urging him on. She was so beautiful, so flawless.

"You're perfect", he muttered and leaned in to kiss her.

He buried himself deep inside her and together, they found their way into oblivion.

And the final moment, the conclusion to their trembling efforts was endless. The morning was coming, surely, another hour and they would be seeing the sun emerge from behind the airport building but when their bodies meshed together in a last eruption, both flaring up and crushing back down together it was as if the world had stopped turning altogether. No more mornings, just an endless dawn. The two of them forever, joined and entwined on the verge of a new day that should stay far far away because it would part them.

**oOo**

It was just Blaine and Rachel, naked and sweaty and spent, breaking apart, collapsing beside each other on damp sheets, his hands still entwined with hers as they breathed hard, trying to steady themselves.

It took a while but eventually they turned to each other again and Rachel smiled at him contently and satisfied as it seemed. That made him happy, really it made him more than happy, it made him – _wait_.

Blaine's chest was suddenly burning. Not with the after glow of their mind blowing sex but another feeling he knew but had never quite felt so pointedly. It spread into his whole body, into his fingertips and toes, making his forehead and cheek burn and throat dry again. He was naturally scared out of his mind but his body was so utterly at ease it refused to tense, it refused to stop stupidly grinning at Rachel.

She didn't notice the change at all. The sudden and complete shift of Blaine's world. The morning was coming and this day would see a different Blaine. This one, this new Blaine was...in love. Probably more profoundly than he'd ever been.

But the day would never know it because Rachel never would. She couldn't. She'd think he was crazy falling in love with someone after less than a day spent together, he knew that, even dizzy as he was. And even if she wouldn't think he was crazy, he would never learn because he was leaving – in about five hours.

She couldn't know and he would have to forget. The thought was grim and threatened to rip his fleeting heart right out of the skies but he refused. He did a quick calculation in his head. What time was it, when did he have to check in?

Five hours, he had five hours. He would not let her go for five hours. He would hold on.

He scooped her up into his arms, taking the duvet from the edge of the bed to cover them and kissed her head. Five hours. He had so many questions, he wanted to know everything about her, anything at all. Five hours, he wanted to trace her face with kisses, trail her her whole body.

Five hours. He'd been on his feet for longer than twenty-four. Five hours, she smelled so good, he just wanted to focus on that smell and closed his eyes, just for a second. Just to decipher the flavors.

Five hours, peaches and cherry blossom, a little like lemons and fresh apples and...what was that? Cinnamon, yes. Five hours.

Just...five...more...just...

And Blaine Anderson fell asleep.

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><p><strong><strong>The next chapter will be up tomorrow. Any time after 10 reviews.<strong>**

****And note: This story is far from over.  
><strong>**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's Note: **_My dear friends, here it is, Chapter Five. I have Chapter Six outlined too and hope to update quickly. As always, your wonderful thoughts and opinions keep me going. All my love to all you guys, I hope you like this chapter, even if it's a little sad.

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><p><em>Chapter Five<em>

Rachel was wading through thick water, she had to get to him, quickly, she had to save him. Or at least be with him until they would both die. The water was leaking on from everywhere now, black and strong and dangerous, threatening to sweep her away with it, away from him.

Why wouldn't her legs move faster? She was fighting slow motion, sticking her in place and each step became agony. She needed to see his face again.

"Blaine", she cried, his face ghosting in front of her eyes. Her time was running out. They only had minutes left. She needed to be close to him, it couldn't end yet, not like this, not when Blaine was still a corridor away. This damned ship wouldn't sink with her apart from him.

A shrieking alarm filled the air and Rachel didn't question how the speakers still worked even when the light had flickered to permanent darkness just moments before. The alarm unsettled her. It was loud and close and persistent. It wasn't even an alarm at all, it was more of a song. It was a woman singing but Rachel didn't like it like she normally would because it started to fill all her consciousness. The corridor faded, falling apart in front of her eyes. 

_No_, she was so close, she had to get to Blaine. So little time, _please, please let me see him again_.

But there was only the song and distant light and the music got louder and louder and there was a buzzing, like a swarm of bees coming for her. She just wanted to see Blaine. She reached out her hands and the walls gave in, burying her, the water hitting her cold in the face, filling her lungs. She would never see him again.

Rachel's eyes flew open and it took her a second to realize that she'd been dreaming. She noticed the brighter light, the real shapes and more defined lines of her surroundings. She quickly remembered where she was but the room looked slightly different in broad daylight. Still pretty though.

Rachel smiled absent-mindedly, the horror of the bad dream almost forgotten already. He hair felt chaotic on her head and she was sure her mascara was smeared but she didn't care much as the images and memories of the night before were brought back with the humid air that still smelled earthy and pure and like _them_. Like what they'd done. And nothing was lost yet.

She grinned all dopey, reaching for her phone beside the bed, tangled in her jeans. It must've fallen when Blaine took the pants off of her.

Blaine. He was near, she could feel his body heat radiate, it sent her heart flying. He was so close she could touch him if she reached out her fingers but she kept her eyes on the phone. She'd waited so long to see his face again and touch him, she didn't want to be preoccupied taking a phone call when she did.

Barbra Streisand sang about being the Greatest Star and Rachel saw the caller ID flash a big smiley picture of her brother.

"Sami", she greeted him, her voice was raspy and throaty with sleep, speaking for the first time, "Morning"

"You sound tired", he noted cheerfully and Rachel sighed deeply.

"That's because you woke me up"

"Listen, I'm just a little worried because you're not home and I tried calling you but this is the first call you answer and Tina said you went to meet some guy from the pub?", his voice wasn't accusatory but she could still make out significant traces of worry.

Sometimes she wondered why in the world she had moved out of her parents place to live with her brother of all people. But he had a loft near her college and it had made sense at the time. Right now though, she wished he wouldn't even know if she ever spent the night somewhere else.

Not that she ever did, normally. Usually, if she wouldn't get home, she would be staying at Tina's or Kurt's and it would've been planned out for weeks rather than a spontaneous fling in a hotel with a guy she didn't know well and Sam didn't know at all. Not that he had to, it was her life. But she still felt a little guilty for not even giving him a heads up about not sleeping at home.

"I'm fine, Sam", she reassured him, trying to keep her voice very soft, "I'm sorry I didn't text you but you don't have to worry, everything's alright"

"So you went home with a guy then, sissy?", he asked, a mix of mockery and a challenge. She sighed another deep sigh.

"Goodbye Sam"

"Oh come on, tell me how that happened? You never do stuff like that, I'm just curious", he argued.

"Goodbye Sam", she repeated more pointedly and he muttered something incoherent in response.

She hung up, smiling. She'd tell him eventually. Just not right now. Right now she wanted Blaine to be her dirty little secret, just hers. She moved to put the phone on the bed side table and finally look at him – _wait_.

She turned the phone in her palm again. _No._

Seeing Blaine was great but it fell flat to her expectations because she couldn't concentrate on how gorgeous he looked, draped face down over the mattress, his bare body uncovered until down to the small of his back, the little dimples on his skin there still visible.

She didn't have the due time to acknowledge the birth mark right of his spine, just above the crease of his neck, couldn't linger on the messy curls framing his scrunchy face that lay pillowed on his strong right arm while the other arm lay sprawled at his side.

If she'd had the time she would have noted that his position looked kind of uncomfortable but she didn't have any.

Rachel sat up fully in bed and put the phone away. When her hands were free she began to rock him by the shoulder. He wasn't stirring.

"Blaine", she said, "Blaine wake up"

No reaction.

"Blaine, you gotta wake up"

His eyelids fluttered but instead of opening them he growled and shifted, his face crunching in protest. The fingers of his right hand spread out and in a couple of times, waving her off.

"Blaine", she almost screamed and shook him with both hands, "IT'S TEN THIRTY"

"What?", he shot up, blinking a few times, adorably disoriented, rubbing his eyes with the back of his wrist. His bed hair was gorgeous and Rachel hated the fact that she couldn't keep staring at it.

"It's ten thirty, you have to hurry", she told him, her hands falling onto his thighs on their own.

He looked at her for a second, dumbfounded about what, she didn't know but then the meaning of her words kicked in and his eyes widened.

"Shit", he spat and in the blink of an eye he was out of the bed, wiggling free of the blanket in all his naked glory. Rachel watched him hurry through the room, stumbling back into his briefs and pants and picking his shirt off the ground.

"Shit shit shit", he kept muttering and Rachel began to feel a little awkward.

"I'm sorry", she breathed, bringing the comforter up under her chin.

Blaine twirled around on the spot and his face changed from strained to puzzled and then he wobbled a silent _no_. He was already heading towards her.

Swiftly, he grabbed her face into his hands and bowed down without warning to kiss her, hard and thorough on the lips, pecking two three times after because he didn't seem able to pull away immediately.

"_I_ am sorry", he whispered, "I didn't mean to fall asleep, I'm sorry"

He sighed and shot her a regretful look before straightening up and kissing her forehead.

Then he was already back to organizing his stuff and Rachel staggered out of bed to recollect her clothes. She knew where her jeans were and her top and bra lay scattered around the bed too. Only her panties were missing. When she spotted them she gasped. They were ripped in two. Laying almost underneath the foot of the bed. She walked over, still naked and picked up the shredded pieces of fabric.

"I liked those", she pouted and Blaine's head emerged from the bathroom where he had brushed his teeth.

"Oh shit", he said, shocked by himself as he put his toothbrush into his trunk, "Did I do that?"

"I know it wasn't me", she answered, the hint of a smile tugging at her lips.

He was fully clothed now and grinned at her reply. Rachel was butt naked but oddly enough she didn't feel weird, even as he checked her out, eyes falling from her frame to the rest of a string in her hands.

"I probably got a little over-excited", he muttered sheepishly, "I can buy you a new pair"

Rachel grinned at his courtesy even though it hit her heart like an arrow, "No, that's alright"

It was the kind of affection that felt like daggers. She needed to get a hold of herself.

"Did you sleep well?", he asked her as she climbed into her jeans pantieless, trying to regain some sense of normality.

"Like a stone", she nodded, aiming for a casual sound.

"I did too", he said and the look of regret and slight anger was back on his face, unsettling her, "This sucks"

"Why, what?", she questioned, closing her bra at her back.

"I got to check in my bags at the terminal in twenty minutes", he explained, "That's not what I'd planned. I didn't want to fucking sleep all my time with you away"

Rachel's heart constricted painfully again, he wanted more time with her, wanted it maybe almost as much as she did.

She yearned to hold him, to cradle him and tell him not to worry, that they would have time, more than enough and everything would be fine but she couldn't. Twenty minutes, that was all they had. She wanted to cry.

She let out a huffed breath and let her top fall back to the floor as she rushed to him, overwhelmed by all these new feelings and that fierce, overpowering desire to hold him.

She crushed her body against his and squeezed her arms around his waist. He wrapped her tightly in his embrace and they meshed together, falling in place like puzzle pieces.

His breathing was uneven and she couldn't stand to see him so sad. Even though it would never measure up to her sadness, that much was sure. For him it was just a fling, for her it was so much more. And it had no future.

"It'll be fine", she murmured into his shirt, thinking of one thing that would make it better for him and a lot worse for her, "You'll have forgotten me next week"

He reacted quickly, nudging her away from him, holding her face another time with urgency, "That's impossible"

He kissed her again, softly this time, short. He tasted minty.

"Shit, Rachel", their foreheads nudged together and Rachel could feel her throat closing off.

She was going to cry. No, she couldn't. He would realize that this was more to her, he couldn't know about that, it was too humiliating. She wiggled out of his grip and darted to the bathroom.

"Is everything okay?", he asked her worriedly when she found a fresh toothbrush on the sideboard and began brushing her teeth.

"Yes", she reassured, mouth stuffed with toothpaste and her eyes brimming with tears, "I just had this taste in my mouth and I didn't want to kiss you smelling like a brewery"

He chuckled and she was glad that he believed her. Not that she was lying, she was just keeping a bit of the truth from him. She was going slightly crazy and it was better if he didn't know. He'd be terrified knowing he'd laid a total push-over idiot who'd fallen in love with him after five silly hours.

Rachel could hear Blaine fix up his suitcase and rinsed her mouth and face again, rubbing off the water with a white soft towel and searched for her eyes in the mirror.

Her make-up was a little smeared but nothing the towel couldn't rub off. Her cheeks were flushed, giving her rosy apple cheeks and she thought she looked presentable. She was crazy but at least that wasn't visible.

She produced a band from her jeans pocket and fixed her hair up in a bun, hoping he would still find her at least a little pretty like that. Normal and a little squishy in bright daylight. She thought how funny it was that Blaine had met her the one day she wasn't wearing a dress. He probably took her for a whole other person altogether.

Usually she was totally girly, dresses and bows and peter pan collars, vinatge stuff, the older the better but for karaoke she often liked to play around with a kind of tougher style. Blaine would never see her in her regular clothes. But maybe he wouldn't have found her appealing dressed like a toddler, as her brother liked to describe her style. Maybe he only payed attention to her because of her slutty clothes.

That thought made her hick-up again, rubbing off threatening tears and she scolded herself to keep it together. Blaine couldn't know of her distress. It didn't matter anyway anymore. What had happened happened and she would never find out if Blaine would have liked her under normal circumstances, no matter how badly she wanted to know.

When she stepped outside eventually, she found him sitting on the edge of the bed in front of two packed up suitcases and holding out her top for her. He watched her putting it on and then reached for her hand.

It was warm and a little sweaty but she didn't mind. He pulled her on to his lap so she straddled him and he put his forehead on her shoulder.

"I wanted to tell you that I don't usually dress so slutty", she informed him despite her resolve, immediately wanting to give herself a facepalm. Blaine chuckled.

"That's hardly slutty", he grinned, "It's very sexy"

"Well, then I usually don't dress so sexy"

"How do you dress usually then, Rachel?", he asked her with a smirk up at her.

"Dresses and bows", she stated, "Like a doll, says my Dad"

"Who ever told you that wasn't sexy?"

"Trust me, it really isn't sexy, I aim to dress like a candy cane", she joked half-heartedly, not really finding her humor.

"You could wear a potato sack and it would still be sexy as hell to me", Blaine whispered and kissed her.

She pushed up against him, tousling up his hair, parting his lips with her tongue and trying to put all she had left into that one kiss. He was taken aback but didn't flinch back, instead he pulled her closer yet and intensified the kiss until they were both out of breath and his pants were bulging again.

He huffed in frustration because he knew that they didn't have time for anything further. He seemed to hate it just as much as she did.

"Why did I fall asleep?", he asked as if that was the stupidest thing he'd ever done while Rachel sadly played with the little curls in his neck.

There was such grief in that moment, from both of them and it mingled into their breaths and motions, holding each other tight for longer than they should have and it was painful to part again, almost like tearing off a limb.

She looked at his eyes and saw a flicker there, something deep and telling and for a second, she believed that he felt the same way she did.

Maybe he'd even completely lost his head too but she knew better than to ask him about it. What good would it do? It would only make the whole thing more hurtful.

"It's time", she said and hated herself. He nodded ruefully and carefully put her back to her feet.

It was ten fifty when they exited the hotel, Rachel rolling the smaller of the trolleys behind her.

They took a cab to the airport and got there at exactly 11 am. They didn't speak much, just the logistics were spoken of. Blaine would check in the suitcases and Rachel would get coffee.

They would drink the coffee and then Blaine would have a little breakfast and go through customs at eleven thirty. They kissed quickly before they parted.

He wanted a regular tall black coffee with three packs of sugar, she kept repeating in her head so not to forget it, walking over to the nearest coffee shop and placing her order. There were people everywhere and many sported the same glum look she knew she wore. The look of impending separation. Of a long good bye and a longer time apart, in Rachel's case _forever_. She payed for the beverages and swallowed hard. It wasn't fair. She'd had years to fall in love with someone at home but then all it took was a stupid spontaneous night and she was in love with someone she couldn't keep.

Half of her wished she had never met him but that thought was the only thing worse than knowing he would be gone soon.

They met behind the check-in area and he took over his coffee gladly, entwining their hands as they walked to the little mall section leading to the custom sections.

"How much do I owe you?", he asked her as they sat down at a table in front of a fast food booth.

"Don't be silly", Rachel smiled sadly, "It's on me"

"Well, then I'll get the pastries for breakfast", Blaine said with a wink, forcing a grin that didn't reach his eyes and left her to buy a menu of the sweet breakfast option of the joint. Ten vital minutes of their time were wasted on that.

She had no appetite but she was hungry, so she ate a donut and a muffin without really tasting anything.

"I had a really great time last night", Blaine said, nibbling on his own donut.

"Me too", Rachel said, taking his free hand into her own.

"I'm gonna miss you"

"I'm gonna miss you too"

"But we'll stay in touch though, right?", Blaine asked, hopeful, "I mean, you got my facebook and we can skype and just...talk?"

Rachel sighed, "That never works out"

"I know", he laughed. It wasn't a happy laugh.

"Are you happy to go home?", Rachel wanted to change the subject, to think they had some sort of future beyond their encounter hurt because it was all gonna fall apart.

She would chat with him a few times, maybe even skype and then he would forget her and she would be even more heartbroken. That wasn't what she wanted. Better a clean cut now than dragging pain over months and months, waiting and hoping and praying to hear from him.

"I am but I'm not", Blaine answered and squeezed her hand, "You're really something else Rachel Berry"

He smirked that smirk again he'd sported the first time he learned her last name, at the check into the hotel. She'd asked him why he thought it was funny but he'd just shrugged, saying it was a cute name and it fit her well.

"You're quite unusual yourself, Blaine Anderson"

They smiled at each other, finishing their breakfast and quicker than each of them liked it was eleven thirty and Blaine couldn't drag out customs any longer.

After putting away their trays, they made their way to his terminal's custom gate, fingers entwined again. They were silent for the walk because speaking hurt.

There was no line at customs and Rachel cursed inwardly because that was just her luck. If there'd been a queue she could have stayed with him for a while longer but this way it was just no use.

They came to a halt a few steps from the waiting employees and Blaine took a deep breath before scooping her up into his arms, lifting her off her feet. She didn't want to cry but her resistance was low and he was so close and he held her and soon he would be gone. She couldn't hold back the hopeless sob that broke out of her, overpowering every resolve.

She shuddered against him as his hands closed tighter on her, desperate.

"Please don't cry", he begged with a dry and brittle voice, like he was close to doing the same thing.

"Boarding begins now for flight 307 London Heathrow to La Guardia, New York. Please all passengers report to terminal 4 for boarding flight 307, London Heathrow to La Guardia, New York. First Class boarding has begun", said a calm woman's voice through the PA system and Rachel cried harder.

Blaine set her onto her feet and cradled her head, kissing her blindly and she could taste salt on her tongue. Her tears only or some of his own, she wondered. This wasn't fair.

She wanted him so badly but she couldn't have him and the injustice clogged her throat as she tried to envelop his lips, taste him for one last time, grab him as close as possible.

They broke the kiss much too soon and she could see Blaine's eyes were wet, even though he hadn't cried like her yet.

He held her close, keeping his eyes locked on hers and whispered hoarsely.

"I know this never works", he started, "But I just can't..I can't walk away right now, knowing I'll never speak to you again. Please, please just promise me we'll talk?"

"Anything", Rachel promised, knowing it was a stupid idea but she agreed with him. She refused to let this be _it_. The next few weeks would suck and it would hurt in the end but this couldn't be the last she'd seen of Blaine Anderson.

"We'll skype", he promised, "Whenever we can"

She nodded and sniffed before he kissed her again, caressing her so softly, making it so hard to stand while his thumbs grazed tiny circles on her neck. He was so tender, so perfect.

She held on tighter just when she felt him pull away.

"I have to go", he muttered but didn't let her go for a while.

When he did, they were both breathing hard, fingers entwined and cheeks wet. He'd broken after all. He grinned with a pained grimace mixed in, wiping her face with the sleeve of his coat with one hand and squeezed hers with the other.

"I'll text you as soon as I'm home", he said and kissed her one last time.

She nodded because she didn't trust her voice to speak.

"You're so amazing", he said, speaking instead and then, slowly but still too fast he let her go, pushing her purse that had fallen off her shoulder back up, touching her cheek for the last time. She kissed his palm and then they weren't connected anymore.

Blaine walked backwards until he couldn't anymore and Rachel held a sad hand up, muttering "Bye" and he went through customs. She stayed rooted on the spot, waiting for him to wave one last time before he disappeared around the corner to catch his flight.

As soon as he was out of sight Rachel's vision clouded completely with bitter tears.

* * *

><p>Blaine's lips were burning almost harder than his eyes, flaming with the memory of her there when he took his ticket out of his jacket pocket, getting into the boarding line.<p>

He couldn't fathom the weight and intensity of his feelings letting her go like that. It didn't make sense, he only knew her some hours, just one wild perfect amazing night but when she had started sobbing in his arms he couldn't contain his own misery anymore.

It just wasn't fair. Why did he have to meet her here? Why now, why was she here and he was bound to go away? Why wasn't she a New Yorker girl? Why hadn't he been born in London? Why was it so hard?

Behind him, some elderly guy shuffled his feet, he smelled like pipe smoke and a little further in the line a child cried. Blaine went through the motions, showing his ticket, walking through the corridor to find his seat, far in the back by the window and stared outside glumly.

He touched the pane, imagining it was Rachel's skin. Why had he fallen asleep? He was such a tool, he could've had hours with her but he chose to fall asleep. His arms were throbbing with her not in them and what made it worse was that there was no cure inside. She wasn't there anymore and she wouldn't be any time soon, if ever.

He half wanted to run out of the plane just to be with her again but he couldn't do that. He had a life in New York, and Quinn and Beth. They were waiting for him and he had to go home.

Around him the seats were filling and then they were already rolling to the runway. Blaine swallowed hard when they took off, the wheels of the plane leaving British soil, leaving Rachel behind and Blaine put his face into his hands to keep fresh, angry tears from falling.

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><p><strong>Chapter Six will be up after 10 reviews, tomorrow at the latest.<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note: **_My lovelies, thank you so so much from the bottom of my heart for all your kind reviews. Keep them coming, they keep me writing. I have many ideas for this story, so I hope you are as pumped as I am for this to move along. In this following chapter we follow Rachel home and finally get to know her brother Sam. We'll meet Blaine's friends in the next.

Because you are all so amazing and because I have so many ideas and thoughts about my little "Everything On It" universe, I have created a tie-in blog on tumblr. It features fashion posts, scenery photos, a character list, songs and trivia. If you want to learn more about the story, it's people, it's locations and some fun trivia (for example how Blaine's politics blog looks like), visit: "http : / everything-on-it . tumblr . com" (delete the spaces) and explore.

I would really love it if you'd tell me here or on the blogs ask-page if you liked it after your visit. If you have a tumblr yourself you don't have to follow the blog if you don't want to (obviously) but it pays to check in from time to time as I will be posting teasers and sneak peaks of new chapters there and keep the fashion and scenery log updated as we go along.

Plus you can send in questions, critique and inspired graphics etc. I know it can very well be that nobody cares but I figured if readers here are curios to learn more or want some food for imagining the places and clothes, it would be a fun thing to create for you. Of course you don't miss anything if you never go there, it's just a little bonus for those of you who are interested. :)

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><p><em>Chapter Six<em>

Heathrow airport was buzzing with life and sound and colors but to Rachel everything was gray. Suddenly she saw happy people everywhere, happily reunited, happily returning home, happily going on travels. She was green with envy for their joy. She hung around Blaine's custom's gate for a couple more minutes as if unable to move before she sniffed one last time, blew her nose into an old tissue and made her way back. She felt lost in the huge building, lost and alone.

While she wandered down to take the tube home to Islington, she wondered if Blaine had boarded yet, how he was feeling, what was going on in his head. It was no good though, her thoughts just kept turning around and around about how unfair everything was and it weighed her down. Also she had no way of knowing how Blaine felt. It wasn't like she knew him very well. A bitter scoffed up laugh escaped her.

Passing through the mall section, she plugged in her earphones and decidedly put on her happy playlist, determined to see the good things of the mess. He would text and they would talk like he promised and maybe she'd find closure then.

Maybe she would find that he wasn't that great at all when his physical pull on her couldn't work it's magic. Maybe she'd find him plain and uninteresting and everything would sort itself out. She was kidding herself but it worked a little.

By the time she reached Angel station, she felt almost okay and the desire to go back and get in a plane to New York had made way to the deep wish for taking a shower. Though she still caught herself repeatedly checking her phone. It was silly. He'd probably just taken off and he wouldn't text her from the air. She wouldn't hear from him for another eight or nine hours. If he'd keep his promise at all.

She rode the escalator, the longest in all of London, up to the surface, stepping out of the station into a bright spring day. It was sunny and pleasant, smelling like blooming trees and ice cream and it seemed like the world was rubbing it in her face. It was a beautiful day but Rachel couldn't appreciate it.

Crossing the street, she yawned deeply, after all she'd only gotten about four hours of sleep. She made her usual right behind the clothing store, walking down the street lined with town and apartment houses, almost all the way to the end of the road and let herself into the red-doored brick building, taking the stairs up slower than she normally would.

Her and Sam's place on the second floor smelled like it always did, like food, coffee and stuffy air. She always told him to crank the windows open more often but when he was working on a book, he didn't notice the world spinning on around him. There'd been days when she literally had to feed him, just so he would pause long enough to eat. As she hung her jacket by the door she could hear the keys of his laptop being tapped from the kitchen.

"And so she has returned from her anonymous adventure", Sam called over, surely having heard her key turn in the lock and narrating her life to tease her as he did so often, especially when he was writing, only thinking in novelist-lingo, "She tosses her purse onto the dresser and stretches her limbs, home sweet home. But something has changed, not the place though, no, _she_ has. For you can't go back once you've done something you've never done before, something like sleeping with a stranger"

Rachel was in the kitchen when he finished his speech, just right to hit him on the shoulder with force and conviction.

"Shut up", she huffed and sank down on the chair next to him, setting her elbows on the table and putting her forehead onto her palms.

"It's not really that big of a deal, you know, we've all had one night stands at some point", Sam shrugged and abandoned his lap top to pour her a cup of coffee, setting it in front of her. It smelled deliciously tempting, almost enough to make Rachel look up.

"I just don't feel like talking about sex with you", she muttered angrily, "Is that such a hard concept for you to understand?"

"Wow, someone's in a good mood", he noted sarcastically, "Just drink your coffee, you're unbearable before your first cup"

"I already had one", she grumbled.

"Then what bug bit you?", Sam inquired, "You had sex last night, you should be buzzing and glowing or singing that annoying Lonely Island song but instead you're sulking like it's the end of the world. Oh wait, was he _that_ bad?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Sam", she said with palpable annoyance and took a couple of large gulps from her cup just to keep her hands from strangling him.

"Oh my god, he _was_ that bad", he seemed almost cheery at that, like when they were kids and Rachel got a gift for her birthday he was jealous of but then it didn't work.

"He was absolutely satisfactory, thank you very much", she snapped and rose to her feet, grabbing the cup and storming out of the room.

"Oh Rach, don't be like that", he called after her and she could hear the grin on his face.

"Go finish your book", she scoffed, flipping him off behind her back and he barked the kind of deeply amused laugh that pushed all her angry buttons.

As soon as she threw her door shut behind her, a synth-violin hip hop beat flooded the whole place and Akon sang about just having had sex. Rachel had to take some very deep breaths to stop the steam shooting out of her ears and nostrils.

"Shut UUUP!", she yelled on the spot and put her cup on the bedside table before letting herself crush down onto the mattress, burying her head in the pillow.

Just like that she was thirteen again and she hated her brother with a burning pressure. That asshole dick, seriously, why was she living with him? And there, everything had started out so great with him back in the days.

Little Rachel Barbra Berry was as unhappy as any three year old could be, tossing her Birthday Barbie across the room, yelling scratchily about how this wasn't what she wanted. She wanted a big brother not a stupid doll. Her fathers had to sit her down and tell her that it was harder for them to adopt a kid because they were two Daddies, a concept that hadn't made sense to her then and didn't make any now.

She had to wait another year until she got what she wanted. A little after her fourth birthday, the Berries visited the children's home Samuel Evans had lived in for three years and young Rachel finally met him on the playground while her Dads had another talk with the directors of the home.

_The grass had just started sprinkling through the muddy soil and Rachel was happy to be wearing her dress again. She didn't like pants but her Daddies made her wear them in the winter because of the cold. _

_Now she skipped over the stones and was happy about the pretty colors and the nice fresh air that smelled like flowers and trees. The boy was sitting on one of the swings, looking at her a little funny. He had really blond hair and a really big mouth which made her giggle. Sometimes the kids in school said she had a frog mouth and he did too. He looked like her then, which was great. Like a real brother would._

"_Are you Sam?", she asked him when she'd reached the swing set and he nodded, "I'm Rachel"_

"_Hi Rachel", he smiled a little. He was eight, her Daddies had said. To Rachel that was really, really old and she was a bit scared that he wouldn't like her._

"_My Daddies say you can't come home with us today but we can play together if you want to", she informed him and slowly approached the spare swing. There weren't any other kids on the playground but them so she didn't feel bad for sitting down._

"_They have to sign the papers first", Sam said, "Until then I can't come with you"_

"_Do you want to come with us though?", she asked him curiously, she needed to be really sure Sam did _want_ to become her big brother._

"_Yes", he said merely but he seemed a little sad._

"_You don't have to be sad, I know most kids have a Mommy and a Daddy but having two Daddies isn't bad at all. They are really nice. And my Mom visits often", she promised._

"_It's not that", he said slowly, "I just...I really want a family but the last time a couple came in they ended up leaving me here. I want it to work out this time. I want a family that wants me"_

"_We do", Rachel proclaimed, "I do, it was my idea you know, I wanted a big brother. I really want you to be my big brother Sami"_

_He smiled brightly at her then and Rachel smiled back. He had a nice smile, friendly and kind. He would be a great big brother, she was sure._

"_Do you need a push?", he asked her, nodding his head at the swing and she bobbed up excitedly._

"_Yes!", she exclaimed and Sam jumped off his swing to push her, higher and higher and Rachel laughed so much she almost forgot to go to the loo._

_Finally, she would get what she'd wished for so dearly, a proper big brother._

_Curse him_, she thought eighteen years later as his baritone joined into the chorus of the sex song and she had a pretty good idea that he was dancing in front of her shut door, just enjoying the hell out of her discomfort.

She was just about to unload a triad of insults on him when Barbra Streisand mashed her voice with Akon and The Lonely Island and Rachel got her cell out of her jeans pocket. Answering it blindly.

"Yes?", she murmured into the phone, her voice muffled by the pillow.

"So you did it then? You had sex with him?", Tina asked her expectantly.

"What makes you think that?", Rachel piped, wondering if Sam already pitched the story to the 1 o'clock news.

"The song you're playing, I can hear it in the background", Tina replied, "Although I do find it a little tacky but hey, it's been a year right, you're good to celebrate"

Rachel growled, "I'm not playing it, Sam is. He's taunting me"

"So you didn't have sex?"

Rachel said nothing.

"Oh, _you did_, you so did", Tina quipped, "Tell me all about it, was he nice, did he treat you well, did you really want to? Was he respectful?"

Rachel sighed. And waited and then turned around in bed, "Hold on a second, CC – Fucking turn the fucking music down you animal, I'm trying to have a conversation here, do something productive and write your fucking book you vicious BEAST!"

Sam of course didn't turn off the music but at least he toned it down enough so the walls stopped shaking and Rachel could talk to her friend in peace.

"I did sleep with him", she confessed, quieter than necessary but she wanted to make absolutely sure Sam wouldn't hear, even if he tried listening in, "And he was cautious and respectful and attentive and it was..it was really amazing"

"But?", Tina asked promptly, "I sense a humongous but coming there"

"But...he's gone", Rachel breathed, "And I think I...I think I kinda have a crush on him"

"Well shit", was all Tina had to say to that apparently.

"Exactly", Rachel agreed, "What am I doing, Tina? I can't fall in love with him, he's an ocean away. But he's so beautiful, god, he's so...argh, you know. CC, he's got a V-cut"

Tina drew a sharp breath at the other end of the line.

"I _know_, I nearly died when I took off his shirt, a fucking V. What have you?"

"Well, he was pretty to look at even with a shirt on to begin with, Sugar is still mourning"

Rachel laughed, for the first time since she woke up that day, "She'll get the next American that hits on us"

"Rachel, yesterday's one didn't hit on _us_, he only hit on _you_"

"He did, didn't he?"

"You're one lucky scout"

"What am I going to do?", Rachel wallowed, "I think I love him"

"Take it slow, honey", Tina said, suddenly serious, "When you fall you always fall so quickly and in this case it probably isn't very wise with the ocean in between and all. Are you gonna talk to him again?"

"He says he's gonna text when he's back in New York and he made me promise that we'll skype"

"I'd say wait that out before you apply for a green card", Tina mocked slightly.

"I wasn't going to _apply for a green card_", Rachel poorly imitated Tina's voice – although her friend probably had just given her a very dangerous idea.

"Whatever you say", Tina cooed, blatantly bickering, "Okay I gotta go, I just wanted to check in and see if you were alive and well. Kurt wants me to remind you of your lunch date at 5"

"Like he can't text me himself", Rachel said but was really glad Tina had reminded her because she had completely forgotten about it. She did have proper reason to forget though, all things considered.

"You know how he is", Tina said, "Gotta run, don't take it too hard, Rach, love you"

"Love you too, CC", Rachel said and hung up and checked the clock.

One thirty pm. This left Rachel another two hours to sulk and one to shower and get ready.

_Fair enough_, she thought and turned back around, setting her alarm for three thirty, putting in earplugs and rolling onto her pillows again.

Rachel woke from an uneasy nap, two hours later, her alarm ringing angrily at her. Needless to say she was even more destroyed than before. She turned to her room, blinking tiredly over her yellow walls, lined with some postcards and posters of plays she'd been in, over her desk topped with a computer and a stack of papers from college, to her girly dresser and the shut windows.

Her purple drapes were open, letting in the soft spring sunshine. It all looked neat and beautiful, just how she liked it but today this didn't help to cheer her up. Her room might be tidy and organised but just in one night her whole life seemed to have turned upside down. Stupid love. Stupid perfect Blaine.

At least Sam seemed to have rediscovered the sensible mature adult within him and went to write in his own room, leaving her shower and get ready in peace. He'd even chopped some fruit into a bowl of cereal with yogurt that waited on her desk for her when she got back, her hair dripping on the floor.

"Thanks, Sam", she muttered, not really so he could hear but to acknowledge it. He would know she was thankful anyway.

She finished the bowl before putting on moss green tights and a blue patterned summer dress with a peter pan collar and a little cute bow, added a red woolen cardigan and flats and dried her hair so it fell loosely around her shoulders.

She didn't put on much make up and went with her bag ready to give herself a once over in the full length-mirror in the corridor. She looked nice enough. She wanted Blaine to see her this way. This was the real her, not dressed up to act like a rock star, just plain Rachel who loved pretty dresses and wore flats. Would he like her this way too? Well, she wouldn't find out any time soon, she thought and shrugged with a heavy heart.

"I'm meeting Kurt now", she called out to Sam's closed door, "I'll be back in a bit"

"Have fun, sis", he called back just when Rachel left the apartment.

Kurt Hummel was by his own account a flaming homosexual and Rachel loved him for and, sometimes, in spite of that. He was a great guy, just at times even more of a diva than she was. He also held grudges and was easily offended. But she knew him long enough to know how to handle him and so she met him with a sincere smile in front of the new Mexican restaurant he wanted to try.

They hugged each other tightly and exchanged the usual greetings, before he nudged her inside. Their table was near the bar, much to Kurt's approval as the buff barkeeper absolutely fit his type.

Kurt liked sporty guys, rugby and football players and he'd already been with a surprising large percentage of those, considering most athletes were very adamant on being straight as a flag post.

Not that Kurt was sleeping around, but of the four boyfriends he'd had, three had been playing some sort of rough manly sport. His current partner, Dave, was a big burly guy who played Quarterback in an American Football Team in his free time and he had the kind of built that would scare people off in a dark alley but he was sweet as a pie if you got to know him. He really, really loved to knit and Rachel thought he was just fabulous.

"How's Dave?", she asked Kurt as they sat down and he stared a little too pointedly at the barkeeper.

"Great", Kurt grinned and turned his attention back to her, "Don't worry about him, I'm just working up an appetite"

Rachel laughed lightly and peaked down at her menu.

"So I hear you've been having sex?", Kurt inquired without hesitation or courtesy.

"Are you serious?", Rachel huffed, dropping the carte, "Might as well put it on Piccadilly Circus and let the whole city know"

"Tina just mentioned you going off with a sexy American and I'm curious", he shrugged, waving the waitress over.

"Well, his name is Blaine and he is great and we had a lovely night together, end of story", Rachel mumbled, swallowing as many syllables as possible.

"Your violent blushing looks more like there's a sequel to that story though", Kurt mused before ordering them two Mojito's.

"Why is everybody suddenly so interested in my love life?", Rachel whined and really honestly couldn't fathom it.

"Because since Finn you didn't really have much of one to be interested in", Kurt argued and she had to admit he was right, "So was he good?"

"He was amazing, we were amazing. It was...it was really great", Rachel answered after a while, her head clouding with memories again. She smiled softly, recalling his lips on her, his hands holding her, him moving inside of her.

"Happy to hear, I'll drink to that!", Kurt said, taking her back to the present and happily raised his drink.

His enthusiasm had her smiling beside herself, clinking their glasses together with a chuckle.

"Oh", Kurt said, cutting his sip short as he remembered something, "What about the ultimate test of character? Did he ask about or initiate talks and measures of protection?"

"No", she hushed and he made gulp-eyes in distaste, "But he didn't have to, I've told him about my sticklet"

"Rachel you gotta stop doing that", Kurt sighed exasperatingly.

"But people want to know about it"

"No, they don't. You just go around asking everybody to touch your little stickandit's weird, Rachel. You are molesting them, might even wanna call it sexual harassment"

"It's an excellent conversation starter", Rachel insisted.

"You have a tiny plastic stick implanted in your arm that makes you not bleed every month and while that must be awesome for you, believe me, for the last time, it's not something you want to go converse with people about"

"Blaine was very interested in it", she stated spitefully.

"Well, I would've been _very_ interested too if I wanted in your pants. _Him_ being all ears about it hardly proves your point"

"He's not like that", she was more serious now.

"Really?", Kurt raised his signature cynical eyebrow.

"Yes, really", Rachel affirmed, "He asked me so many times if I was really sure I almost wasn't sure anymore if he was sure"

"Sure about what?"

"Having sex"

"Oh"

"Yeah"

"Well, was he?"

"He was _sure_, firmly and thickly"

The two of them shared a little naughty look, enjoying the innuendo for a second before they both broke out in giggles. It was nice talking to Kurt about it. Somehow it all seemed less grave through his eyes. Easy and pleasurable and like there was nothing more to it all. She'd had fun, she'd made a friend and she was staying in contact. Simple as that. Easy as lemons.

There was nothing dramatic about a one night stand. Just casual sex. No need to be heartbroken, no need to wither with yearning because Blaine wasn't there. She'd still talk to him, so why the hassle?

She spent her dinner thinking lightly like that, joking and bickering with Kurt over vegetarian Burritos, believing firmly the worst was over and she didn't even miss Blaine as much anymore. Truly and honestly. She would be just fine.

But then, a little after eight her phone buzzed on her coffee table at home and immediately, her heart stopped and all the oxygen fled her system when she saw the ID. All the missing him was back, even wose than before, like a low blow to the stomach, punching the air out of her lungs, leaving her breathless. Her cheeks burning hot and her palms got so sweaty the phone nearly slipped right out of her hands.

Finally, after some fidgeting around with the silly thing, she managed to open the text. She started laughing, a cold and desperate, insane kind of laugh. There she thought she'd be fine.

_ Fine_, what a joke, she would never be fine again without him.

_8:23 PM, Blaine_

_Touched down. I miss you. Let's talk very soon. -B_

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><p><strong>Next Chapter will be up sometime tomorrow. Then we'll meet Quinn and Beth and learn a little about Blaine's life in New York.<br>**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Author's Note:**_ The next chapter starts in a second. I just want to take a second to thank you again and to ask you guys a question.

The thing is, I have, as I said, a ton of ideas for this and the story is very important to me, but as it's so important it will take a little longer for everything to unfold, I'd say it could maybe get into the 20-something chapter area. The question is whether or not you'd be willing to stick around for so long.

I'd be eternally grateful if you would sound off about this should you be so awesome to review.

Also I'd like to remind you of "http: / everything-on-it . tumblr . com", the blog going along with this story. Happy reading and a big hug to all of you.

* * *

><p><em>Chapter Seven<em>

Texting Rachel was the first thing Blaine did, before the plane was even off the runway. He'd deliberated texting her from the air, sometime after a three hour nap when he believed his head must've blown up from still not being home. He had dreamed of her. Of her hair and lips and the way she felt in his arms and the four hours after that, until New York came in sight, had been excruciating. He'd seen other people whip out their phones but as soon as he attempted to text a flight attendant was on his back, asking him to kindly turn it off. He'd wanted to complain and rat out the others but he wasn't five so he hadn't.

Long story short, before the plane arrived at the gate he'd sent the text, trying hard not glance at the phone for an answer every two seconds.

He didn't know what he was expecting. They'd been together for half a night, yet it felt like they had some sort of a commitment, or at least a promise to try and have one. At least that's what he'd had in mind when he promised her to stay in touch. He had really meant it. He wanted to keep talking to her, day and night if that was possible.

It would suck not being able to touch her but at least she wouldn't be completely out of his life, that likely possibility would've been unbearable.

As he eventually made his way out of the plane and through the passport control over to the baggage claim of La Guardia he shook his head at himself. He'd wanted a fun souvenir from his trip to Europe, a tiny Eiffel tour, a Berlin miniature bear, a tattoo for all he cared but what did he do instead?

Instead of bringing home some funny little token, he'd left one there. His funny little, stupid jumpy heart. What use was it? He never fell in love, why now? He'd dated so many girls...really, so many girls and none of them stuck. But some buttercup sweetheart English girl with a pair of killer hips and an apple bottomed ass comes around and knocks him right off his feet. How was that fair?

The challenge of getting his two suitcases of the baggage band was a task that temporarily cleared his mind off the short brunette because it took a great deal of force and coordination to haul them both off the rotating band before one or the other would take another spin.

He let out a long breath as he sat them both down in front of himself and made his way to the arrival gate. People pushed past him a lot faster but after eight hours cramped into a tiny economy seat – that was still tiny eventhough he wasn't the tallest guy – he couldn't really walk anymore and he was tired and sad and though he really didn't _want_ to be, he couldn't help it.

Mike, Quinn and his little Beth would be picking him up, probably already waiting for him to emerge just around the corner. They'd want him to be really excited and so he swallowed his glum thoughts about Rachel and focused on his great luck to be coming home to friends that were like family and that had missed him maybe half as much as he'd missed them.

Looking at it this way, his steps fastened and he forced himself to smile. He breathed the air conditioned buzzing airport air, noting that even in the filtered whiff there was still a trace of flowers and fresh grass mixed in somewhere and he was glad spring had followed him across the ocean.

Just a few more steps and he'd step into the arrival area, nothing spectacular and not to be compared to JFK with its multiple terminals and everything bright and shiny. La Guardia was kind of a seventies relict in more than one place. They were working to make it prettier but it didn't really catch on and Blaine also didn't really care, he just wanted to make out his friends in the sea of people waving welcoming signs.

And there, far in the back he saw one, bright green and only held at half the height of the others, a crayon-massacre externalized on neon cardboard with streaks that were very surely supposed to mean "Welcome Home Blaine".

He grinned from ear to ear, sincerely for the first time in hours and just then, Beth's ocean blue eyes found him in the crowd. She was the first one he saw, before grinning brightly at Quinn holding her daughter by the shoulders and Mike, who stood casually beside them, leaning on a luggage trolley he'd gotten for Blaine.

Quinn nudged Beth forward and the little girl threw down her sign to start a clumsy spurt towards Blaine, prompting him to let his suitcases drop, squatting down to the perfect height for her to crush her tiny body into.

Her blond pigtails hit the sides of his face at the impact and she wrapped her skinny arms around his neck, squeezing him very tightly. She smelled like strawberry shampoo and her Moms detergent. A wave of homeliness hit Blaine, like a burden was lifted off of him, or better like a big chunk of his heart was being shoved into place again. He couldn't ignore the part of it missing, waiting somewhere in London but at least he had Beth back.

He almost just realized then how much he'd missed the little angel and he got all choked up again, this time mostly with happiness for a change.

"Hi princess", he nudged her face gently and scratched her back a little before letting her go, shifting his weight so he could sit comfortably at her level and examine her. She was grinning with those huge pearl blue eyes. She had stretched upwards slightly since the last time he'd seen her, her frame leaner and cheeks a little less chubby. She looked a lot more like Quinn too. Or maybe that was just the lighting of the hall. If anything, she'd grown a solid inch or even two. It made him a little sorry for the time he'd missed with her.

"You got so tall, look at you", he cooed and gave her a playful hook to the chin, "Such a big girl, I missed you"

"I missed you too Laine", she croaked and darted into his arms again.

Blaine reacted in reflex, lifting her up like he had so many times and twirled her around a bit – which was getting a harder than it used to be with her getting so big – and then put his arms under her butt and leg so she could sit on his hip.

"The lost son has returned", said Quinn, her honey-colored hair chopped a little shorter again so it hit just below her jaw and she, too was smiling brightly as she stepped up to them, giving Blaine as tight as a hug as you can manage when one of the hugging is holding a kid.

"Aww, I missed you Fabray", Blaine smirked and pecked her on the cheek, "You both look so good, is that the spring or have you dressed up for me?"

"Laine, I got a _new_ dress", Beth piped in response and Blaine chuckled as the little girl ripped the apple green fabric off her leggings clad-knees to wiggle it for him to see.

Mike had waited a few paces behind, giving the three room mates a little space but now he joined them too, hugging Blaine with one arm and ruffling his hair when he pulled away.

"Dude, you need a haircut", he joked.

"Them Europeans dig the curl, my friend", Blaine said expert-like, chin high.

"So I've heard", Mike muttered jokingly, "Now, let's get out of the way here, it's almost five thirty and we don't want to get stuck in rush hour"

Blaine shuddered thinking of rush hour. He looked around to find Quinn and Mike both taking one suitcase on and he was mighty glad, he really rather held on to Beth.

"Did you go to Kindergarten today?", he asked the little girl in his arms as they made their way across the street to the parking garage where Mike's old Ford waited for them.

Beth nodded, "Dut Mommy got me defore nappy time"

"Oh, so you could come along to pick me up from the airport?", Blaine cooed, exaggerating – but not by much since he was honestly touched – his appreciation.

"See my dress?", she asked again, apparently sidetracked from their conversation by the little flowers and butterflies on it.

"It's very pretty, perfect for spring, right?"

"Ah-huh", she nodded, "Found it out all 'lone"

"Yeah, we went to Macy's last week, didn't we?", Quinn chimed in from a few paces behind, "She went shopping like a big girl"

"But I hope you still have room in your closet", Blaine said, turning back to Beth, "Because I got you a little something too from the KDW"

"What's the Katy Doddlyou?", Beth asked with big eyes as they reached the Ford, looking at him curiously while Mike began to prop the suitcases up into the trunk.

"It's a big big mall, huge, you can ride the escalator all the way up to the ceiling and ride down in a see-through elevator. It's in Berlin, in Germany", Blaine told her.

"Germany", she repeated, toying with the word as if she'd heard it for the first time. He remembered telling her about where he was going, naming all the cities and countries but that had been a month and a half ago, she'd probably already forgotten.

"How's your family there?", Quinn asked, standing by, waiting with them for Mike to drive the car out of the tiny parking space so they could get in more comfortably.

"They're all fine, Frankfurt looks like New York from afar, makes them less homesick", Blaine joked and watched Mike pull out skillfully.

"I'm so glad you're back", Quinn sighed and hit his shoulder with a huff, "I really need a second hand in this household, Beth's been running a little wild. Right, monger? You've been going a little crazy without your uncle Blaine there to watch you when Mommy's busy"

"I'm glad I'm back too", Blaine said but he couldn't quite manage to feel like it all the way.

Being back was truly great, especially having Beth sitting happily on his hip, playing with his hair, that was awesome but Rachel was still far behind, so many miles away and that kept creeping up on him.

Of course they didn't miss rush hour. It was nearly an hour later that they finally pulled into the less busy side streets of Greenwich Village and Blaine welcomed the positive welling up of his stomach, happy and excited to be back in his neighborhood. It was quite posh and popular, the Village, most of these townhouses were impossible to pay for and he knew how fortunate he was, being able to afford to be living here.

It hadn't always been this way, sure his parents were wealthy by general standards, sending him to private school and paying for his education at NYU to the extend that the job he'd taken during college (working a Barnes and Nobles as a clerk) had been voluntarily. More to pass the time and have some money spare to go out than to pay the bills. He had insurance, his students loan had been repayed a while ago and he lived comfortably.

But there had been a time, when he started building his blog when he invested so much money into it, with no one giving a damn about it yet – no readers and no sponsors, let alone advertisers – that he had to go on instant mashed potatoes for more than one night at a time.

This time had passed, he had earned a following and a great deal of respect and now he could live off the ad sales of his blog alone basically and the _Times_ money payed for two thirds of the rent for the 160 m² of his and Quinn's apartment.

The blonde, who now sat in the backseat with her daughter, was adamant on evening out, she could pay half now with her lawyers salary, being taken on by a big agency straight out of law school because she was tough as a nut, smart and ballsy, but Blaine refused.

He'd rather have the money spent on a proper education, health and nutrition for Beth than wasted on living space, the costs of which he would've maybe even been able to pay on his own.

The red brick building he called his home finally came into view to his right and Mike whistled joyfully when a parking spot got unoccupied just as they pulled over.

"Like we payed them to save it for us", he laughed with the joy only a New Yorker can feel about something silly as a free parking space.

"Home sweet home", Blaine mused, opening the passenger side door and looked out for cars before opening Beth's, scooting her up into his arms again. He'd probably missed her the most.

Her eyes were wide, more for him than her surroundings as they walked inside the building. Blaine wondered how long one and a half months must've felt for her. For him, everything but the last night had flown by in a heartbeat but for her it must've felt like ages. Time goes by slower when you're little.

"I made pumpkin soup", Quinn announced with a grin as she fell into step with Blaine and Mike, Blaine's two friends taking on his suitcases again.

"That's my favorite", Blaine yelped excitedly.

"That's why I made it", Quinn laughed, rolling the suitcase into the elevator Mike had called for them, "But it's kind of hard finding decent pumpkins in spring"

"I'm forever in your dept", Blaine smiled and was just about to turn to Mike to catch up when he felt his jeans pocket buzz.

Just like that, his heart was fluttering again, expectant like he'd been maybe at thirteen for a girl to smile back at him, only it felt so much more intense now. He literally prayed it was an answer from Rachel. And he wasn't even religious.

He'd been wondering all the way back why she hadn't replied sooner but he figured she'd probably been busy, her life didn't end just because he wasn't with her anymore.

_6:12 PM, Rachel_

_I miss you too. Sorry for the late reply but I didn't want to bother you coming home and all. When can we talk?_

Blaine composed an answer, finding his way out of the elevator blindly, staggering behind Quinn and Mike into their flat on the fourth floor.

He barely had the head to acknowledge the long missed place, revel in the familiar smell mixed in with traces of soup because he was getting cold and hot flashes, just thinking of Rachel, somewhere in London, in her bedroom maybe wanting so dearly to speak to him as he wanted to speak to her.

_6:14 PM, sending to: Rachel_

_Bother me any time :) I guess I need a little time to settle in and catch up on my blog and get into office to get my new assignments and all that nasty stuff but what about Wednesday night for you? Nine-ish your time?_

Wednesday was three days away and Blaine wished he didn't have to drag out seeing her again this long (even if it was through a crappy webcam) but he was afraid he wouldn't make it out of his apartment if he talked to her immediately.

He'd just camp out in front of his laptop, waiting for her to come on and while he couldn't think of anything he wanted to do more, work sadly had to be his priority now. He'd taken six weeks of leave after all and his inbox had been brimming with possible assignments his boss wanted him to look through and take on stat after his return.

"Blaine?", Quinn questioned him and he looked up, "Beth's getting bug eyes, you know what we said about screens in her sight"

"Sure, sorry", Blaine smirked and tugged the phone back into his pocket.

Beth was exceptionally fond of any kind of screen, television, computer, smartphone, even as a toddler all her attention would flee from whatever activity you were trying to involve her in as soon as a screen was turned on somewhere near. She would literally squirm out of people's arms to get a glimpse at the moving, colorful pictures.

Quinn didn't like it much, that's why the flat screen TV sitting on a media wall kind of cabinet which also served as a waist high partition to the kitchen area, remained turned off until after Beth went to bed. The three year old was allowed three hours of television in the working week and two on the weekends but even that seemed too much for Quinn.

Blaine tried to soften her a bit, telling her that before long Beth would have to learn to deal with mass media and they would have to take her by the hand and guide her through the mess of commercials and crude jokes and inappropriate stuff that they wouldn't be able to shut her away from forever.

"Who are you texting anyway?", Mike asked, returning from putting Blaine's suitcases in his room.

"No one", Blaine said quickly. Too quickly. Both his friends were raising an eyebrow while Beth tried to wiggle free of him, her little arm stretched out to his jeans pocket, wanting the funny screen back.

"Blaine Anderson have you been having a hot holiday affair?", Quinn asked, hungry for gossip as she rarely was, she only ever seemed interested about stories that Blaine wasn't willing to share right away.

"No, it's Cooper", Blaine said and he wasn't sure why he was lying.

Probably because he was embarrassed. His friends knew him as this dating around, never-settle-for-anything kind of guy that never got too attached and for him to meet someone on travels that would wind him up this way was constricting with his image.

"Mike, grab the baby", Quinn ordered and quicker than Blaine had anticipated, Mike had yanked the little girl out of his hands and Quinn chased him through the living room slash kitchen slash dining room slash workspace.

His last refuge was the couch but Quinn didn't care about ruffling her usual business outfit, made up by a high waisted black pencil skirt, rosy red ruffled blouse and a matching black blazer. She just crashed right on top of him and pried the phone out of Blaine's protecting grip.

He could hear Beth chime with joyful laughter from the kitchen, undoubtedly enjoying seeing her Mom playful when she usually didn't have much time for goofing around, much to her own distaste.

"So, who's Rachel?", Quinn said finally, falling back onto the couch with his phone in her hands.

Blaine feigned defeat and buried his head in the cushions.

"No one", he muttered again, if possible even less convincing then before. He probably really wanted to talk about it or he would do a better job of hiding it.

Who was he kidding, he needed to talk about it, talk about Rachel, all day long, about her hair, her eyes, her sense of humor, how smart she was, how she felt under his fingers, soft and pearly and how far away she was and that she hadn't texted back yet. He was ridiculous.

"So you miss Rachel and she misses you and you say nine-ish _her time_ so she's in a different time zone, so you met her in Europe, tell me Mr. Anderson, tell me all about it", Quinn babbled in rapid succession.

He was used to it though, his friend lived feverishly through his love life because she didn't have time and patience for her own.

Plus, she claimed, guys these days weren't too keen on dating women who already had children. Something Blaine disputed every time and knew he was right the way guys lurked after her in the open.

You'd think they wouldn't because you'd think people thought him, Quinn and Beth were a family when they went strolling in the park but the men gawking after her didn't seem to care in the least.

"Aren't you a detective", he murmured and finally sat up. He scanned the room, finding Mike listening intendedly, leaning on the kitchen counter and Beth engrossed in one of the stuffed animals she'd found lying around.

"Come on man, tell us about the mystery lady", Mike joked and Blaine faltered.

"Fine", he caved, "Her name is Rachel Berry, I met her...god, I met her just yesterday night in London and we went out and kinda...spent the night together and now I can't stop, uh, I can't stop thinking about her"

There was a pregnant silence in the room at Blaine's confession of deeper feelings toward a girl and he could see Quinn think up a thousand questions but then Mike spoke and saved him. By the bell, so to speak.

"Why do I always have to leave when it's getting good?", his friend blurted out with sincere regret and sighed deeply, moving towards the door to collect his jacket.

"Where are you going?", Blaine asked, dumbfounded for just a second.

"Well, we don't all have the luxury of six weeks paid leave, now do we? I'm already running late for make-up and Cassie is gonna give me a beating as it is", Mike pouted and nodded to the clock in the kitchen, "I was supposed to be there to pick up my new tap shoes half an hour ago"

"Right, I remember, kitty time", Blaine recollected, it was Sundayand almost show time at that.

Mike was part of the ensemble for the revival of _Cats_ on Broadway and Blaine's friend took that job very seriously. It wasn't a given to be employed as a Musical Theater performer and Mike was very keen on staying that way.

"I'll meet you after the show", Mike grinned, "I'm not taking my baby to the streets now, you can take it to drive to the theater later"

With that he was gone.

"Wait, what?", Blaine asked Quinn who smirked.

"Beth wants to see the cats dance again tonight", she informed him and Blaine let out a huff, it wasn't like he hadn't seen _Cats_ for about three million times since Mike had started working there the year before.

"Only if you deal with her when Macavity happens", he insisted, leaving Quinn laughing amusedly.

"She's gotten a lot better with that, she almost doesn't even jump anymore. Don't be such a baby", she ordered resolutely and went on with her business, "I'm gonna fix dinner now and you tell me all about that Rachel girl"

Blaine spent the next fifteen minutes playing with Beth in one corner of the room while Quinn heated up the soup in the other and set the bigger dinner table for them. He told her the whole story of meeting Rachel, safe for the Holiday Inn part because that wasn't meant for Beth's little ears.

Quinn listened patiently to him gush about every last detail he recalled, trying hard not to forget anything and she was kind enough not to ridicule him about the whole falling in love thing. She probably knew it was unsettling him enough as it was.

"So, the bottom line is you got yourself in a pretty fudged up funk, huh?", Quinn resumed as she brought over the last bit of soup for them. Telling the story had lasted Blaine over dinner.

"Pretty much", he said and wanted to elaborate even further on his misfortune when his phone buzzed again.

_6:58 PM, Rachel_

_I fell asleep by accident, I'm still a little derailed from yesterday. Wednesday at 9 it is, can't wait to see you. Xoxo _

"What does she-", Quinn started but his phone buzzed again.

_6:59 PM, Rachel_

_Sorry, me again, I just wanted to say that you could always text me if you felt like it. In the meantime, I mean. That is all, I'm gonna sleep now._

Instead of answering, Blaine showed Quinn the screen, Beth leaning yearningly towards it from her high chair that was getting decidedly too small for her.

"We have to get her a new chair", Blaine said but Quinn was paying no attention, eyes fixed on Rachel's texts.

"I think she likes you", she assessed.

"Really, you think?", Blaine said sarcastically.

"Oh come on, you and I both know that you've gotten -", and she paused to lean over to Beth at her side and cover her ears for the next part, "- girls into bed before that hated your guts"

"Most of the time it was more a case of mutual indifference to the other's deeper layers of character", Blaine corrected.

"Well, at least you never brought these 'cases' home with you", Quinn said, eyebrow raised, "Maybe now with Rachel happening you can start keeping it in your pants and stop sleeping around Manhattan"

"Mommy, what's sleeping 'round?", Beth asked and Quinn looked like she wished she hadn't had let go off her ears.

"It's a game grown ups play, like sleepovers", she answered, "Your uncle Blaine _loves_ sleepovers"

"You have a sleep'ver with Rachel?", Beth asked Blaine with huge eyes and he nearly spit out his soup, this little girl was too smart for her own good, startlingly like her mother in that aspect – also he was a little hurt that she could flawlessly say Rachel's name while he was still _Laine_ and she hadn't even met her.

"Um", he cleared his throat and nodded slowly, "Yes, I had a sleepover with Rachel. We, um, we played some funny games"

"Oh, that I believe", Quinn mocked.

"Shh, eat your soup", he bickered back, "I shouldn't leave her alone with you for so long, I can't deal with two of you in this house"

Blaine took care of the empty bowls when they were done, stuffing everything into the dishwasher as Quinn took Beth to her bedroom to get her dressed.

"Wait a second, Quinn", he called when he remembered his gifts, "Before you put her in another dress she needs to unpack my gift"

"Well bring it in here", she called back, "We're not going anywhere"

"I forgot how much I missed your demanding attitude", Blaine yelled, setting the last spoon into the washer and passed Beth's room where the two of them sat on the floor, walking through the door out of the living room, past the big bathroom to his room at the far end.

It was the first time in six weeks he was back in his realm and it was a comforting sight that nothing had changed at all while his life had turned completely upside down over night, somewhat reassuring. Some things always stayed the same.

He took a deep breath and silently greeted his things back, his Abbey Road Crossing Beatles poster over his desk, his solid wooden bed that would most likely not see any more action for even longer – well, safe for single action. Blaine could almost see his sorry self lying there, clutching his dick thinking frantically of Rachel. Thank god for Quinn's 8 to 5 and Beth's 7 to 4 Kindergarten days.

Right, Beth and Quinn, he meant to get their gifts. He shook the mental image of Rachel naked on his bed that had irrevocably formed in his twisted brain and went to rummage through the bigger of his suitcases, roaming with little care for a mess to find the desired gift bags.

Two doors down he found Beth in her underwear, playing with an array of dolls, Quinn sitting by and waiting for him. He paraded into the room, waving an oblong package, wrapped in shiny pink for Beth and a big, square black paper bag for Quinn, passing each of his girls their souvenirs.

Quinn neglected hers in favor of helping the child struggling with the thick wrapping paper, afraid that Beth would get a paper cut although her little fingers weren't anything near the edges, she just helplessly clutched the top, trying to rip the paper with her tiny fingernails.

"Here, let me help you", Quinn offered and quickly unpacked the gift, revealing a white, posh carton and took the top of gingerly.

On top of more wrapping paper sat a miniature fiery red, typical two story London bus that Beth immediately grabbed and rolled a couple of times on her peachy carpet, imitating driving noises so enthusiastically that she drooled a little.

Blaine laughed, happy that she liked it and wiped her mouth with the back of his hand.

"These are driving all over London", he said to her, "One day I will take you, if you drive on top it's really cool"

He disregarded that the same buses took tourists through New York too but that was because sightseeing wasn't the same. These buses were typical for getting around in London and they should be ridden only in London, he thought, just for principle. Besides, Beth already knew New York.

"Beth, look what else Blaine got you", Quinn chimed and had her daughters attention back as soon as she produced Blaine's second gift, a pretty white dress with a flower print going all around the bottom hem, "Isn't it pretty?"

Beth grabbed the dress too and attempted to put it over her head. Blaine helped her to stand up and she willingly lifted her arms, knowing the drill. The dress fit her perfectly and the colorful flower print looked nicely with her red cheeks and blonde hair. Blaine wanted to pat his own shoulder for picking out exactly the right thing.

"She's not gonna take that off any time soon", Quinn mused, "You really shouldn't have, I bet this was impossibly expensive"

"Not too much, just 80 bucks", he shrugged.

"Blaine", Quinn scolded and punched him in the shoulder, thinking it was too much.

"It's a really cute dress and it's good quality", he argued, "Plus, if Santana and Brittany manage to get married before she'll outgrow it, she can wear it for the wedding, so we don't have to buy a new dress for her then"

Quinn deliberated this for a while, chewing her lips but then her eyes slipped to her own gift and he knew she wasn't too mad.

He'd gotten her a patterned scarf, the kind she hoarded in masses so he could never pick a wrong one really, along with that a tiny little metal Eiffel Tower (she loved Paris very much) and an LP of Joni Mittchell's "Song To A Seagull"-Vinyl that he'd picked up on an Italian flea market.

He didn't care too much about that kind of music but Quinn loved it so he was sure he could endure it, should she play it for dinner in the future (which she undoubtedly would).

"Thank you, Blaine", she said sincerely and gave him a weird hug, weird because they were both sitting with Beth playing with her dress in the middle, "You should go away more often, so I would get more gifts"

"Not gonna happen", he said as they broke apart and he glanced down at Beth, "Remember, I have to make sure you don't mess this little one up"

"You say that now but in two weeks you're gonna hurry back to your Lady London", Quinn quipped and Blaine laughed sadly because he kinda wished that that was a real possibility and not just a jab.

Quinn seemed to sense the change in the air, the shift in his face and patted his arm sympathetically, "I'm sorry, I didn't meant to rub it in"

"It's fine, I'll see her again on Wednesday and if it has to be on a fudging ol' computer screen so be it", he sighed, "It's better than nothing"

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><p><strong>The next chapter will be up tomorrow, anytime after 10 reviews for this one. <strong>

**Who's up for a little skype romance?**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author's Note:**_ Sorry for the delay on this. I hope it was worth the wait!

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><p><em>Chapter Eight<em>

Rachel had never believed how long three days could be. She went to college, met Tina and Kurt and Mercedes dropped by on Tuesday for coffee. This were happenings when time seemed to pass sensibly, every other minute stretched into eternity, especially the night.

Of course the hours were dotted with the occasional text he sent but the time in between replies seemed to take twice as long as the regular long hours.

Blaine checked in with her, at least three times a day, once when she got up, once after college and once around nine pm when he told her Quinn returned from work and he didn't have to watch Beth anymore.

Rachel was still jealous of Quinn and the whole situation. Blaine's love for Beth bled through even in the short messages and she felt insecure and inadequate because he already had two women in his life, having lived for years like your average middle class family. She thought there was no room for her which was silly because she knew there wasn't any need for room in the first place.

She wasn't there and she wouldn't be to fill it anyway. She was harvesting her crush on him, _knowing_ it was a hopeless endeavor, yet she couldn't seem to stop herself. The elation and buzz she felt whenever her phone vibrated with one of his texts was like a sugar high she'd began to crave, that she'd become addicted to.

When Wednesday finally came she sat restlessly at supper, nibbling without appetite on a toast Sam had given her to dip into her tomato soup.

"It's just a skype call", he muttered, glancing up from his own bowl, "You look like you're about to piss yourself"

"Shut up", she muttered without much resolve and then after a pause that Sam filled with a very pitiful look she sighed deeply, "I'm so nervous"

"But what for? He can't jump through the screen", Sam said and seemed honestly perplexed at her discomfort, not that she fully understood it herself.

He was right, Blaine wouldn't jump through the screen. Still it was like a first date of sorts, them, just talking because there was nothing else to do and that was as nerve-wracking as it was agonizing. She couldn't just kiss him or touch him or ruffle his hair when she felt like it, he'd be painfully 2D.

Plus she really didn't know what she wanted to happen, half of her was afraid she wouldn't have enough smart things to say and it would be awkward and she didn't want that, she wanted him to like her, to find her smart and witty and funny but the other half of her wished that they wouldn't get along at all in the light of day so her heart would stop yearning for him.

Sometimes her chest felt like it wanted to jump out of her, wobble to the ocean and swim to him, the feeling such a distinct pull as if a sling had been thrown around her heart and someone yanked at it, hard. Every second of the day.

"I don't know", she finally answered Sam, she didn't know what she was nervous for, she couldn't decide which of the two emotions was stronger – her wish to please and to keep or to be appalled and free.

As it was getting closer to nine she helped Sam clean the kitchen and then went back to her room. Her bother left her alone and didn't pry, probably registering that she wasn't fit for his mockery for once.

Rachel thought about trying to impress Blaine, putting on make up and a dress or maybe her exact outfit from the pub but she eventually saw no use in a costume.

He'd seen her photos on facebook – even commented with flirty banter on some – he knew that she was more Goldilocks than Femme Fatale and so she stayed in the red maxi sweater that had a huge Minnie Mouse head weaved into it, her black leggings, cozy winter socks she had worn all day and put her peppermint tea in her favorite mug (a blue one with comic-y owls on it) next to her computer, running a hand through her wavy hair before opening the video chat program.

It was five minutes to nine and he wasn't online yet. His screen name was _blaine-warbler_ and it still sat low at the bottom, nowhere near her other online contacts she was in no mood to talk to. She deliberated for a second but then she clicked on her description and changed her "mood"-status, erasing the quote she'd had there for months and putting in a single word: "superbass."

She made a note of the full stop for emphasis. It was idiotic maybe and she was pretty sure she hadn't used social media status updates to send cryptic messages to a boy (trying to tell him how she felt about him in code so she wouldn't have to say it to his face) since Middle School. Of course it had never quite done the job back then but she was going into it expecting the boys she fancied actually payed any attention to her profiles.

Now Blaine would look at it for sure once he came on though and maybe he'd get the hint. Because the breezy Nikki Minaj song fit her so well. _I really got a thing for American guys..._

The song was already playing in her head and the minutes passed. Nine am sharp, five past nine, ten past nine. Rachel had gone to check her emails and her facebook multiple times and had gone on to just refreshing her profile to see if Blaine had left her a message that he couldn't make it.

In between that she alternated between starring at skype (still no sign of him) and her phone (no new messages).

At nine fifteen she wanted to text him but that seemed needy and pushy and she didn't want him to think of her this way but she was uneasy and felt almost betrayed, no, she felt righteously stood up.

But then, just when she was about to throw something heavy off her table in frustration, _blaine-warbler_ set himself at the top of the online list and in the blink of an eye a window popped open, his words black on white background.

_Blaine Anderson - 21:15 _

_I'm so sorry, Quinn got in later from work, had to watch Beth._

_How are you?_

Rachel took a deep breath in relief but part of her wanted to let him roost a bit and so she took a large gulp from her mug and made him wait a bit.

_Rachel Berry – 21:17 _

_It's fine. How are you?_

_Blaine Anderson – 21:17 _

_Good, a little tired but otherwise great. I miss you though. I want to see you._

She felt prompted and pushed the little "phone" button to initiate a video call, she had checked her webcam twice to make sure she worked, sound and image, but Blaine declined the call.

_Blaine Anderson – 21:18 _

_Give me a second to adjust the camera, I'll call you._

Rachel waited and she had about enough of that when the skype jingle blared through her speakers as she had turned them up all the way to hear Blaine right, so it would feel like he was in the room with her. But just before she picked up she was so nervous she couldn't breathe.

She would see him again in a second, for real. It had only been three days but it felt like she'd been missing him for years and now she suddenly felt unprepared for this moment.

But she pressed the button and the screen changed, it took a time to load but then there he was, sitting relaxed and at ease in what she assumed was his bedroom, hair wild and face scruffier than the two o'clock shadow she remembered on him and her heart stopped for a moment and then took flight.

_Boy, you got my heartbeat running away, beating like a drum and it's coming your way, can't you hear that boom-badoom-boom-boom-badoom-boom-bass..._

Her memory and his facebook photos had done him no justice. He was so pretty it almost hurt and he grinned from ear to ear, both of them taking a second to take each other in. He eyes flickered to his "mood"-segment and it said: "Here we go again, I feel the chemicals kicking in" - a quote from a song too. She wondered if it was meant for her.

But she didn't linger, her eyes quickly found their way back to him, then down to check how she looked in the camera (good enough), she could see her head in a little square at the bottom of his window, and then back to his face.

"It's good to see you", he said when he seemed to feel like he'd waited long enough.

"It's good to see you too", she repeated and couldn't help the huge smile on her face.

"How's your day been so far?"

"Uneventful. Yours?", if you thought sitting around and biting nails waiting for a skype call was uneventful this was even the truth.

"I finally put some new articles on my blog, I put a piece out on Obama today, I can send you the link if you want to"

"Sure send it over", Rachel beamed. It wasn't like she hadn't already been stalking Blaine's politics blog but he didn't need to know that, "So are you a little less busy now?"

"Hardly, I still have a ton of stuff to catch up on but the pressure is off for now, I delivered and now I can try and settle back into work, it's kinda tough after six weeks of vacation"

"I can imagine", Rachel smiled, she couldn't help it, seeing him was like flying.

"I love your sweater", Blaine laughed and she lifted her chest and got her hair out of the way so he could see Minnie better.

They complimented each other for a little bit, Blaine pointing out things in her room he liked, Rachel doing the same and they were all smiles and laughs for a while until a bit of an awkward silence settled over them and Rachel started to panic. She was sure now that she didn't want to be appalled by him or vice versa, she wanted him to like her, maybe even more than that. So she raked her brain feverishly for something to say. Blaine was faster.

"I've been thinking", he said and because that's a kind of sentence that is mostly followed by bad news, Rachel felt her face twitch and prepared for the worst, "I've been wondering how we did what we did but I still don't know the basic things about you, like your favorite color or dish or deep dark secrets of your past"

Rachel had to laugh, "It's purple and baked potatoes with Broccoli...as for the deep dark secrets -"

She let her voice fade and pulled a mysterious face, Blaine was of course hooked, "Come on, spill it, you can trust me"

"I don't really have secrets"

"Then things you're not proud of. I want to know the darkness", the glint in his eye made her chuckle again, "I'm not picky"

"I don't know", she hesitated but Blaine didn't let go.

"Tell me the worst thing you ever did"

"Okay", she caved, "But no judgment"

"Promise"

"Um, okay, so, when I was, um, oh God", she was already so embarrassed it took Blaine another row of pleas until she blurted it out, probably too quick for the webcam mic to catch it at all, "I almost got married senior year in High School"

"What?", Blaine squealed and she could tell he wasn't sure whether to be shocked or amused, "How did that happen? To whom?"

"Finnigan Hudson, been to the same schools together all our lives and it was kind of a never ending story, going back and forth and -"

"- then he knocked you up", Blaine concluded and Rachel wasn't surprised.

"That's what you'd think, wouldn't you? And everyone here did too, after all it's not that uncommon, I had two girls in my grade who already had a baby and another was walking around bloated like she would squat down and give birth any minute. But I wasn't pregnant"

"Then why?", Blaine was incredulous. She couldn't blame him, even telling the story now seemed alien to her, she didn't know that girl she had back then anymore. In fact, she wasn't sure if she'd even known herself _then_. She still thought for a moment to put her thought process into words, the reasons she'd gathered to explain her behavior to herself in retrospective, something she had never really told a soul before.

"I guess I just wanted to take control of my life", she said and Blaine looked at her, hanging on her lips, waiting for her to elaborate, "I was nearly done with school and I had no clue what to do with my life, that's to say I'd always been sure before. I wanted to be an actress, I'd had worked and prepared for that but my Dads were saying that I should study something solid first, something to fall back on and I just thought they were mean and preposterous, that they didn't believe in my abilities.

"So I went to the local auditions everywhere and got rejected by every last school, I didn't even make it to the second round in all but one and then they sent me home too. I was angry and lost and disappointed and I thought that everyone was set on destroying my life, like everything was being taken away from me. My childhood, because I was graduating and suddenly had to be all mature and wise and then my future too, because they were taking away my dreams and my fathers didn't even believe in me. And then there was Finn and I was the only constant in his life so he was terrified to loose me after graduation and he asked me.

"Initially I thought he was crazy but then it was kind of an act of defiance to say yes, to tell the world, here I am, watch me make my own decisions. You all want me to be an adult, watch me do adult things, watch me chose my own future while you're all so busy trying to plan it your way. And, unlike the acting schools, Finn wanted me. So I agreed to becoming Mrs. Finn Hudson"

Blaine was speechless at her monologue at first and he took her in, making her skin tingle even through the computer screen. That really was remarkable. He wasn't even physically present but the way he looked at her sent a current through her body none the less. She caught her breath and tried to focus on what he was saying when he spoke again.

"What made you change your mind?", he asked.

Rachel blew some air through her nostrils in a slaphappy kind of way, like old people often did before telling some story of their wild rebel days of pesky youth.

"We'd already set the date, it was about a month away and then my dress arrived. I'd ordered it from Poland because they make the prettiest, most affordable, most gorgeous wedding dresses in all of Europe, that's what I think anyway, and you know, there it was. I put it on and I looked like a princess, it was truly the most beautiful thing I'd ever worn. And that's when I knew I couldn't marry him.

"Suddenly everything was real. You know, it wasn't some game anymore, some funny castle you built out of candy cotton where you pick out flowers and make seating plans and invited and uninvited people in your head. I mean, I'm a girl, I had my wedding planned by the time I was eight but this was real and I was barely eighteen. I panicked and it just hit me in the face that I was doing it for all the wrong reasons and that my decision was based around the event, the wedding as a happening and the message it would send rather than what it would mean for my life, rather than basing the decision on _who_ I was gonna be wed to.

"I went to talk to my Dads who'd been freakishly supportive of everything until this point and told them that I wasn't so sure anymore – I was still in my wedding dress, bawling on the couch in the living room and that's when they came clean.

"They'd been trying some weird reversed-psychology thing, hoping if they acted like they condoned the wedding I would rebel against that, refusing to get married then and they thought their plan had worked. I told them they were idiots but that wasn't the point. The point was that they'd thought from the beginning I was making a horrible mistake and more, that they never thought for once that Finn and I even had a shot. That did it"

She shrugged and tried not to be too ashamed of herself but Blaine had asked and she had tried to give him the most honest answer she could. He had to make what he wanted out of it now. He still seemed to digest though and she was worried that she had maybe scared him off after all.

"What did your fiancé have to say about that?", he asked, relatively unafraid to her ears.

"He was hurt", Rachel said, remembering a few very ugly scenes after she called both the wedding and the engagement off, "And his ego didn't recover so we were history. I was single for my graduation ceremony"

"I'm sorry", Blaine said sympathetically but Rachel just chuckled mildly.

"I'm not", she shook her head, "I'd be divorced by now. Rachel Berry-Hudson, a twenty-two year old divorcé...That's a little too new Hollywood for my taste"

Blaine laughed.

"So what's your deepest darkest secret", Rachel asked.

"I set a cemetery on fire by accident when I was a kid", he shrugged like that was just something you did when you were young, like playing yo-yo, "But that's hardly a secret, the neighbors still gush about it when I come home and whenever there's a funeral someone will always crack that joke not to let me and my brother stand too close by the hedge"

Rachel was stunned, "How can you even do that? Burn down a cemetery?"

"Well, we didn't burn it to the ground", he explained, "Just the hedges and some of the trees, we were playing with matches and my Mom's deodorant bottle and then _woosh_"

He gestured something that was meant to resemble a fire ball with a tail and then he made funny little stirring moves with his fingertips to portray the sizzling flames.

"Of course Cooper went on record saying it had all been my fault", Blaine added, "He always did that, you know and how's that fair anyway? I'm the little one, he should have protected me"

It was all in good humor but Rachel sensed a strain underneath, a thin layer of true hurt about his brother's reluctance to protect him back then and maybe on more occasions afterward.

"Do you get along with your brother now?", she asked curiously, wondering if Blaine was as close to him as she was to Sam.

"We're fine, I visit him once every blue moon", he replied, "He lives with his wife and two little kids in Boston. We're mostly phoning each other"

"Do you miss him?"

"Sometimes", Blaine scratched the back of his head, "But I have Beth and Quinn here, you know, keeping me pretty occupied"

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><p>Blaine noticed that her lips tensed as soon as he mentioned his living situation. Eventhough her camera wasn't as good as his, it was still able to pick up the change in her features and Blaine tried to wrestle out whether he liked her discomfort still, enjoyed her jealousy or if it was already at that point where he wanted to clear the air.<p>

But then he would have to tell her that she was so much more to him than a holiday hook-up and he wasn't sure if either of them were ready to deal with that sort of confession. He decided to validate his theory on why she was pissed in the first place. That seemed like a reasonable enough approach.

"Can I ask you something and you must promise to answer honestly?", he tilted his head, testing the waters.

"I guess", she replied, a little wary.

"Why are you so annoyed with Quinn and Beth?", he was blunt and her jaw fell but he figured he could might as well put their cards on the table. Rachel was deliberating.

He had a feeling she was weighing off lying against telling the truth. To his relief, she chose the truth.

She took a deep breath and her eyes flickered up to him shortly, sheepishly and then she talked, slowly and steady and he knew she was being honest.

"It bothers me that...that you essentially have a family, even if it's not in a traditional sense, it still feels like there's no space left in your life"

She didn't say there was no space left _for her_ because they both knew, technically, space or no space, Rachel wouldn't be around to fill it. At least physically. She seemed uneasy and he wanted to find a way to reassure her without bringing up the fact that their whole effort, the skyping, the texting, the sleepless nights missing each other was rather pointless.

"Quinn and Beth are family, that's true and that's good as well", he began, "but there is space, more than a lot. I just truly, honestly haven't met anyone who could fill it yet"

_Except for you_, he added in his head. But that was not for her ears yet.

She studied him for a while and sat perfectly still which in turn only made him itchy and fidgeting.

"Rachel?", he asked when she'd stared at him for a long while, "Talk to me"

Then, to his ease and joy she smiled and swiftly changed the subject.

They talked and talked and talked, just like they had the first night when they walked through Kensington to the bridge. She told him funny stories about Sam, someone Blaine was sure he'd like and he told her stories about Beth. She wasn't on edge with Beth at all, he learned, her problem was Quinn. She had probably seen his friend's pictures on his facebook, seen that Quinn was very very pretty and figured that Blaine couldn't possibly live with someone that good-looking without getting involved with her.

But Quinn was like his sister, he never thought of her that way, even now, thinking the way Rachel would think, imagining them together, his face contorted into a weird grimace. There would be something so fundamentally wrong about getting with Quinn, it would be like he made out with Cooper.

Rachel didn't inquire about them anymore though, instead he grilled her a little on her ex-boyfriends beside Finn and learned that there was only Jesse St. James, the son of a friend of her mothers and how they'd been dating in the gap between Rachel getting with Finn, breaking up and getting back together.

Apart from that, no other boyfriends. Rachel told him she had lost her virginity to Finn, something she huffed out a bitter laugh about saying aloud. She also told him she never got with Jesse and she never had one night stands. So what she essentially confessed to him was that he was her second lover. In all. In ever. She'd only slept with two people in her life and one of them was her teenage love, someone she'd even agreed to marry and the other was him. Talk about being special.

It was almost one thirty AM her time when she started yawning heartily and Blaine insisted for her to go sleep but she resisted until two when her head sank onto her palms and her eyes closed for longer intervals.

"Okay, that's it, Rach", he ordered, "You're going to bed now"

"But I want to see you", she protested, fighting her lids to stay open.

"You will, we'll talk on Friday, nine your time", he promised and she ended up nodding, reluctantly saying her goodbyes.

Blaine was hit by a sudden pang as she went to take her cup back into the kitchen, preparing to sleep. He wanted her to get some rest but he wanted to see her too. It was no use though, she ought to be in bed with college the next day and he was just gonna have to deal with her gone.

When she was ready to go, he brought his index and middle finger to his lips and kissed them like he'd kiss her forehead as good night and held his fingers towards the camera. He saw her shuffle and lift her hand out of the frame. She was touching the monitor, touching him. The image of him. He could almost feel her fingertips on his which made parting that much harder.

"Text me?", Rachel asked before she turned the camera off and hopefully climbed into bed.

"Of course", he vowed and smiled, seeing her smile softly one last time before her window went to black.

He sat in front of the dark screen after he turned the computer off and tried to get used to this pulling and yearning feeling in his chest. It didn't work. It was like someone was yanking at him, like someone had put a magnet into his chest, and it pulled him towards Rachel. Only she was so far away. He sighed sadly and finally pried himself away from his desk.

He found Quinn on the couch in the living room, sipping on a glass of red wine.

"Beth missed you at dinner", she said but it didn't have a bad ring to it, she just wanted to tell him, "How was your video date?"

"Good", Blaine said curtly and Quinn eyed him piercingly, her very own form of interrogation, just staring him down, until he couldn't stand it anymore and blurted out what he couldn't hope to contain any longer, "I think I'm in love with her"

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><p><strong>The next chapter won't be up before Sunday because I have a very busy weekend ahead of me. Our latest short film premiers tonight and tomorrow I have an auditionacting workshop for "Cabaret" in my home town so I won't be able to write more.**

**I can tell you, however that the next chapter will switch from Blaine and Rachel to Quinn and Sam. Not for ever, just for this next chapter but we will probably revisit their heads somewhere along the line.**


	9. Chapter 9

_**Author's Note**__: _This chapter took me a little longer because I went home-home and was pretty busy and then I got tensing issues from reading "The Hunger Games" but now it's here. I can't give you a date yet when the next chapter will be up but I'm trying for some time next week. Thank you for your patience and support, I love all of you!

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><p><em>Chapter Nine<em>

Quinn Fabray was sorting through a folder of precedents for one of her cases – a custody battle, one of the nasty kind which were somewhat of her specialty. She told herself to find that once similar case that would help her with the current one and then she could head home. She'd be out a little before five but she'd done her paper work earlier so nothing was really left to do. She smiled triumphantly when she found the right folder quicker than anticipated and put it on her desk to work through the day after. Her work was done for then.

As she grabbed her brown suit jacket her eyes fell on the photo of Beth that sat on her desk. It was almost a year old, her daughter's chubby cheeks reminding her it was time to snap a new, a more accurate picture. Beth was growing so fast. Every day when Quinn got home from work she felt a little jab, seeing her baby play with Blaine like he was all the family she needed while Quinn missed most of her daughter's life sitting through endless meetings, working in the office or pleading cases in court.

She sighed and pitied herself for a couple of moments before she swallowed it down and reminded herself that she would go home and see her baby soon. She was quick on her way out, wishing Grace, the secretary, a nice evening and before she knew it, she was out of the building and on the subway, headed for the Village.

Finally at home she arrived to Blaine and Beth playing tea time on her little set of chairs around a half high table, Blaine sitting hunched opposite of her daughter pretending to drink hot tea from a miniature cup.

Beth immediately dispensed the game and came running to her on her short legs, her momentum still nearly knocking Quinn off. She laughed at the impact and lifted the child up to kiss her hello. Blaine gave them a little space before hugging her briefly and then, like he had the days before, signed off and retreated to his room. To skype.

Quinn was a little annoyed. Not because she wasn't happy that Blaine had met someone, lord knows it had been about time for him to find a girl to rip him out of his excessive dating routine but she was aware of the mess attached to his new found love. Rachel was in London and he was in New York and a thousand video calls couldn't change that reality but Blaine held on, stoically and stubbornly.

The reason why she was annoyed was that it still felt like Blaine was gone, sure, he cared for Beth the way he always did but as soon as Quinn was home he disappeared to live in his dream world with Rachel like she was some shiny new toy and Quinn was left to missing her friend.

She'd been looking forward to having an adult in the house again but for the last five weeks she could be lucky to even see him after his initial hello. The first few nights he'd met her after talking to Rachel to tell her about it but soon, he stayed up talking longer than Quinn was willing to wait around in the living room and so she hardly ever saw him anymore.

She wondered if Rachel never went to bed at all at the other side of the ocean and if her friends were as fed up with it as Quinn was. Mike as well, he'd started calling the apartment rather than Blaine's cell because he kept dodging his calls, their weekly basketball date apparently of lesser importance to Blaine. Frankly, Quinn was tired of dealing with all the fall-out, making excuses and trying to make Blaine not seem like a huge dick who ignored his friends. When really, this was all he was doing.

It had been going on for five weeks total now – five weeks in which Blaine was either on the computer or sulking in his heartache. If he turned up at all, the only things he still talked about were how he missed Rachel, what a fucked up situation they were in and occasionally stuff about Beth. That was the only thing that hadn't changed, his care for the little one.

He also hadn't been to the newspaper in the mean time, working from home and dodging his bosses calls to please come in the way he avoided Mike. Quinn took most of the after hour ones, making up apologies because she could hardly admit that Blaine was most of the time reluctant to even get out of bed when he wasn't at the computer.

Six weeks in, when she had her first day off in ages, she stomped into his room and made him get out by force. She'd just gotten off the phone another time with Jack Miller, Blaine's boss at the _Times_.

He was protesting but she was insistent, ripping his curtains open, letting the midday sun in, should it burn his pasty skin, what did she care?

"You gotta get down to the office", she commanded urgently, "This is the seventeenth time Miller has called for you and I'm tired of making up excuses"

"I don't feel like it", he whined and turned over in bed.

Quinn let out a fuming breath and ripped the blanket off of Blaine's body. He was only wearing briefs and so the rush of air hit him harshly. As it should.

"I don't give a fudge, Blaine", she said, "It's my day off, I'm staying here with Beth so you can might as well go downtown and get your butt back on the horse. Also I'm cooking tonight, Santana and Brittany are coming over and I expect you to be there. No cell phones, no girl waiting on your computer screen, do you understand me?"

Blaine muttered something incoherent and she felt very much like she had a second child.

"Come on", she repeated, "You've been sulking long enough"

"It's never gonna be enough", he murmured and Quinn rolled her eyes at his dramatics – but at least he was getting up.

She lingered for a while, to make sure he really was getting ready, her eyes falling on the total mess that had become of his room.

"Do you mind?", he asked with a spiteful edge as she was blocking his way to his closet and she retreated.

"Look, I'm sorry Blaine", she tried at the door, "I know it's hard for you. But she's not here and your life still goes on, you can't hide away and spend all your time on a computer. People need you outside, _we_ need you outside"

Blaine didn't talk much with Quinn over breakfast, retaliating for her bossiness. His attention was focused on Beth. Of course _Beth_ hadn't forced him out of his hermit crab lifestyle so she hadn't fallen from grace.

But Quinn was fine with it, he'd be mad at her for a day or two and then he'd come around and realize she was right, as she always was. Of course loving someone on a different continent sucked but he had to see that things with Rachel weren't going anywhere for precisely that reason.

He bid her a curt goodbye before taking off into the city and Quinn distracted herself from his hostility by playing dress up with Beth until her babysitters came over.

Beth was always so excited about the door buzzer and this instance was no different, she dropped her big plushy red hat to her feet and darted out of her room.

Bopping, nearly tripping over her little feet, she got her little kids chair and propped it against the wall, clumsily climbing up to hear the buzzing sound through the intercom, letting her aunts in.

Quinn opened the door as she caught up with her daughter so that she could greet their guests by the elevator and soon, she heard a big hello in the hall, followed by friendly inquires about Kindergarten life and echoing footsteps.

Quinn's college friends Santana Lopez and Brittany Pierce had been an item since graduation year and had gotten engaged the weekend after New York made same sex marriage legal. They loved and adored Beth, like everyone did, and wanted to take her to the park for a couple of hours so that Quinn could clean up the apartment a bit since Blaine had been in no mood to do so the previous weeks.

"Hey Fabray", Santana greeted her, enveloping her in a tight quick hug, Brittany kissed her on the cheek as her hands were full with Beth.

"Where's Blaine?", Santana asked, pushing her long dark hair over her shoulder.

"I sent him to work, he was getting too miserable here"

"The British girl?"

"Of course"

"Still?"

"He's stubborn"

"If he really loves her, the distance doesn't matter", Brittany said with the conviction of a true romantic. She was heartbreakingly naïve sometimes and while Quinn knew this was why Santana loved her so much, her childlike beliefs in true love and destiny, Brittany was hardly the one to give the right kind of perspective on Blaine's situation.

Santana padded her girlfriends arm patiently, before turning back to Quinn, "He's a big boy, he'll see what good it does him, pining over someone three time zones over. Anyway, we'll be back in two hours or so"

"Sure", Quinn smiled and handed her friend Beth's little backpack, "You're still staying for dinner later, right?"

Santana nodded and then they were already gone, Beth waving happily at her Mom before disappearing around the corner.

Quinn leaned against the door for a while and looked over the living room, it was decked with Beth's toys and the kitchen was packed with plates and pans Blaine had not managed to put into the dish washer, depressed as he was. She scoffed, he really was like a love-sick teenager but she wouldn't let this excuse count for much longer. He couldn't go on like this, he was ruining himself beating a dead horse. Or better a horse that had never been alive in the first place.

She got through cleaning the living room area fairly quickly, even quicker through Beth's room, however the real piece of work was Blaine's trashed cave for a room.

First, she cranked the windows open and started stuffing his scattered clothes into a laundry bag. Really, she shouldn't have been the one to clean up his stuff but he was never gonna do it, bathing in self-pity like that.

Once again her eyes fell on the computer sitting on his desk and she walked over, shaking her head at it. This ghastly machine was stealing one of her best friends from right under her nose and there was nothing she could do about it other than hope Blaine would get to his senses before it was too late.

Accompanied by a frustrated hiss, she jammed the keys, a silly attempt of getting back at the thing but instead of apologizing or vaporizing, it stirred to life and showed her the last website Blaine had been scrolling through.

"Oh no, you don't", she gasped in shock at what she saw.

Jewelery. And not just any kind. The whole site held nothing but images with horrendous price-tags for one doomed item only; engagement rings.

* * *

><p>"What the hell?", Sam Berry muttered incredulously, sitting with his mac book at his kitchen table, and went to read the latest message on his facebook once again, this time he tried not to get distracted by the tiny profile picture that, despite its size, showed how incredibly beautiful its owner was.<p>

At first he'd been convinced the message was some sort of spam, women like that seldom found their way _randomly_ to his profile, even with him being somewhat famous. Soon though, it was sure that the fact Quinn Fabray had sent him a very urgent message was no accident.

**Quinn Fabray – June 2nd**

_Hi Sam, my name is Quinn. You don't know me but I'm Blaine's room mate. I don't know if Rachel has told you about him but he tells me you two are living together so I figured she might have._

_The reason I'm writing is that I've just found something on Blaine's computer. It was an accident, I wasn't snooping._

_However I feel like I can't ignore what I saw and I'm inclined to think you'll agree._

_He was looking at engagement rings. And I figure it makes sense if he and Rachel are so in love as he says. _

_I'm guessing he might want her to move over here or move to London himself to be with her and to do that swiftly they would have to get married. It probably seems as rash and idiotic to you as it does to me but Blaine is capable of going through with it!_

_And I just think it's a horrible idea – they don't know each other halfway enough to make this decision. And you're her big brother, so you must think the same, right? _

_I just hope you can find a way to knock some sense into her while I try the same with Blaine._

_Please get back to me if you have different thoughts on this or an idea how to sort it out?_

_All the best, Quinn_

Sam rubbed the bridge of his nose in between his index and middle finger, trying to concentrate.

How could Rachel even consider getting married at her age and to someone she barely knew?

More importantly, how could she consider it for a _second_ time? She'd been through this, she knew how stupid it was. Just because she wasn't seventeen anymore didn't mean she was old enough now.

And then to marry a total stranger? She couldn't possibly believe she knew him well enough for that kind of commitment. A drunken one night stand and five weeks of marathon skyping didn't mean you knew someone well enough to get married and live in a strange country with them.

Because she would go to new York, so much was sure, it was her favorite city. Sam had a terrible thought, that maybe Rachel would say yes just for that, just because Blaine was from her dream city and while that seemed a little more like something his stupid little sister would do, it didn't make anything better. Quite the opposite.

But maybe he wasn't being fair at all, he thought, pausing. Quinn had only said _Blaine_ had been looking at rings, not that he'd proposed and not that Rachel had agreed to get married. And really Sam couldn't believe that she would. Her thirst for weddings must've been satisfied for ages after what had happened with Hudson, that sorry excuse of a man.

Still, Rachel had been out of it the last couple of weeks. She'd graduated from college with a good score and while all of her friends were partying and their parents were so proud, asking to take her out for dinner multiple times, Rachel was just sulking whenever she left the room.

She stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to skype with Blaine and then slept the whole day.

When she woke up she was either miserable or hyper, waiting for Blaine to come on again. It was almost sad how her life had started to revolve around her lap top.

Outside summer was beginning to creep over London but his sister was inside, staying pasty. She hardly left the house at all anymore and had even stopped singing around the flat. Sure, the first week it was a nice break because, god, could she be annoying with her Broadway tunes but now he missed her stupid songs and it just wasn't right.

Plus Rachel had planned to start prepping for her acting school auditions but she never even mentioned any of that anymore. If he only had a way to cure her from that stupid Blaine idea before she would throw her entire future away in favor of a blind romantic longing for a love story.

He stopped in his tracks, sucking in a breath. Because _he had_.

Of course, he had a way to do just that. If Rachel was so keen on spending her life with someone she barely knew she could as well try it. As a dry run, a dress rehearsal. With him around at least for a bit.

Like a laboratory trial under close monitoring. Hell yes, Sam Berry was a genius.

He turned back to his laptop and composed a quick reply to Quinn, telling her he'll handle it but asking her for her phone number and a time when he should call her. Because for the growing plan to work out, he needed her _go_.

When he had finished making the necessary calls (all to his satisfaction) he went back to check if Quinn had already answered. He hadn't expected her to but there it was, her number and a plea to call her any time. He was glad this woman obviously cared about the matter as much as he did.

His phone was still warm from talking earlier when he called the third New Yorker cell phone in a day.

"Yes?", said a smokey and quite sexy female voice at the other line after four rings and Sam was a little shocked.

That voice, along with the face from her facebook page (that he just briefly looked at, he was not stalking her at all) made quite the impression on him. And he didn't want to be mean because he loved his little sister but that Blaine dude was living with her, with Quinn, that bombshell of a woman and he had fallen for Rachel instead? Weird world.

"I can hear you breathe, who is this?", Quinn huffed, impatiently and also possibly a little weirded out.

"Oh, um, sorry", Sam hurried, stumbling over his words, "This is Sam, Rachel's brother"

"Oh, hi", she said, relieved and friendlier than before, "Did you think of something?"

"Yes", he began, "But it involves a little action on our parts"

"Go on", Quinn encouraged and then Sam went on to lay out his plan for her.

He would have thought she would take longer to persuade but he had her on board after just ten minutes.

If he was honest, he couldn't quite believe it when they hung up; the things he had started, what he had organized in just a day. It was kind of an elaborate endeavor but it was the only way he could think of to keep Rachel from doing something terribly stupid – again.

He would have to figure out a few other things before he could be absolutely sure everything would work but he still had three weeks to do that so there was no rush.

The only thing he had to get out of the way first was telling Rachel. But he thought he had a pretty good shot that she would be thankful. It all depended on how set she was on getting married – or if she even knew about Blaine's plan.

He actually didn't have to pry her away from the computer this time, barging into her room with excitement.

When he found her reading on her bed, asking why she looked so down, she told him Blaine had texted that he wasn't gonna be on until later and Sam could see she didn't like that much. She had cried a little but he hoped it was from a sad scene in the book. He hated the thought that his sister was working herself up so much over a boy at the other side of the world.

"Do you have a second?", he asked her, lingering in the doorway, hoping mostly to cheer her up quickly with his surprise of sorts.

"Of course, come here", she smiled a little and put her book away, padding the right side of her bed.

"So you're a Publishing BA now, huh?", Sam began, sitting down next to her, thinking of a good strategy to go on. He was gonna make this about her job, her career, no need to mention Quinn or Blaine's engagement plan. If she didn't know already he didn't want to give her any ideas.

"I guess so", she agreed with little enthusiasm, buying into it completely.

"Well, do you know what newly graduated Publishers do?"

"Enlighten me", again, she seemed not very curious at all.

"They try and get work experience and I think you should do that too", Sam explained patiently.

"But I don't even want to be a publisher, Sam", she protested meekly.

"Listen, you know how my American publisher wanted me to get over there for a promo tour for ages?", he went on, ignoring her.

"Ah-huh?", if it was possible she was even less interested than before, which seemed odd since he'd imagined her to jump when he only uttered the word '_American_'.

"I told them I would be there in three weeks, under the condition that they would give my little sister a spot as an intern"

Rachel sat up straighter and a mix of emotions raced across her features as she processed what he was saying.

He thought one half of her was upset that he had just arranged something big like that without asking her first and the other half was wondering where this internship would take place. The last musing proved to be the one stirring the most urgent question.

"Where?", she almost whispered, now on her knees and tense.

"New York City", Sam grinned and relished the one second that Rachel's face spasmed in joy, like it always did when she got a gift she'd wanted so so badly.

Then, with little time to brace himself, she squealed and darted onto him, arms open, with such force that nearly knocked them both off the bed.

"I'll get to see Blaine", she muttered by his ear.

"Exactly", Sam smiled as he set her back and she looked at him wide eyed as he went on to explain, deciding that now it was safe to bring up Quinn, even if his sister flinched at the name, "I talked to Quinn, Blaine's room mate, you know? This was actually sort of her idea. She says Blaine is miserable without you and you're miserable without him so I thought, why not get you working and the two of you together and kill two birds with one stone? She also says it's alright if you stay with them, for the six months of your internship"

That made Rachel's smile twitch slightly, irritation mixing in with elation.

"So I would be..._living_ with Blaine?", she asked and Sam was relieved to see at least a little bit of concern there – a good sign that she probably had no idea about the wedding plans but not enough to reassure him she wouldn't say yes anyway.

"I mean I will be there in an other apartment too, so if anything blows over you'd have somewhere to go", he reassured her calmly.

"You're coming too?", she asked as he got up from the bed to go back to organizing, mostly their visas and tickets still needed sorting out and he figured Rachel would need some time alone to digest the new direction of her immediate plans.

"Of course", he nodded, nearly out of her door, "I'm gonna do the promo tour and try to find someone willing to publish my Sci-Fi saga. Also, I have to make sure my baby sister doesn't do anything stupid, like trying to get married. Wouldn't be the first time"

The pillow she threw against the closing door came with lesser force than he had imagined.

Prove enough that she was very satisfied with him over all and even though he felt like he was half on a mission to get her to stop fawning over someone who clearly made her happy, he was sort of proud of himself.

He was being a good brother, clearly. He was just looking out for her. And who knew, maybe she and that Blaine kid could make it work. He just preferred them to figure that out with different last names.

* * *

><p>On the other side of the world, Quinn couldn't quite believe that Sam had been able to deliver a pretty good solution to the problem at hand in the matter of hours. That guy was really determined and smart as well. She'd planned to merely tell Blaine he was an idiot but something Sam said about Rachel was also quite true about Blaine, now that she gave it more thought.<p>

"You know, Rachel – bless her soul", he'd said, "– when she has her mind set on something she's not backing down, like even an inch and the more people try to tell her she can't do it, the more she will want to, so I think we should let them make their own mistakes, or figure it out on their own – just without wedding bands"

Blaine was determined as well, that was what made him a great political journalist, when he was onto something he didn't let it go and Quinn realized now that approaching him with no alternative would have been a stupid idea.

So, when he got home from work, Quinn bent over her pans, knowing she had something to offer, something to keep him from visiting the engagement ring site for a while and enough for him to stop being mad at her.

"Hey Quinn", he said, putting his bag on the couch, lingering around instead of heading straight to his room as she would've expected, "Listen, I just wanted to apologize, I know I've been a pain the past few weeks"

"It's fine", Quinn smiled sincerely, a little surprised that he was already coming around, sort of, "I know it's not easy"

"It's just that I've thought about it and I might have found a way to...make it better", he tried and started chewing on his bottom lip, looking very much like a little boy who'd trashed a valuable vase, "But it's a pretty big step"

Quinn held her breath, even though she knew what was coming. She had seen the rings, she just hadn't known that the idea had formed to such prosperity in his brain that he was already going to tell her about it. He must feel a little guilty, knowing it was a crazy idea and that was also why he was apologizing, to calm her down before dropping that bomb on her.

She wondered how she would've reacted if she didn't already have a passageway out prepared for him – if this was the first she would hear about him wanting to get married.

She would probably not believe it, and that's how she acted, deciding not to tell him that she already knew.

"Blaine, are you saying what I think you are saying?", she asked, playing up shock and surprise, "You can't be saying that you're thinking about asking her to marry you?"

"Actually, well, actually I do...I do want to ask her", Blaine said and suddenly seemed defensive, "I mean, what else am I supposed to do, Quinn? I can't stand being without her, I love her"

"You don't even know her, Blaine", Quinn said, because that's what she would say if she would hear of this for the first time – and also because it was true and she still kinda wanted to say it.

"But I _do_", Blaine insisted stubbornly, "I do know her, I talked to her almost every day for the last month and you cover a lot of ground when you can't touch each other"

"But you don't have to marry her to get to touch her", Quinn said, wanting to calm him down before he got so aggravated with her that he would book a chapel just out of spite.

"And how is _that_ going to work? I can't beam myself down there as I please", he was not getting it.

"No, Blaine, listen to me, you don't have to marry her to get her here because she's coming here anyway", she said, slowly to make him understand.

"What?", he said after almost a minute of letting it sink in, probably failing to make sense of the implications.

"Sam just gave me a call", Quinn said as if the call had come totally out of the blue and absolutely unprompted.

"Who's...wait, Rachel's Sam, as in Rachel's brother Sam?", Blaine asked dumbfounded.

"Yeah, I talked to him on facebook a couple of times and he just told me that Rachel landed an internship with his American publisher, here in New York", Quinn said in a chit-chatty voice while still scanning him for his reaction, "She'll be here in three weeks"

Blaine took a second to stomach that before his face lit up like the fourth of July and he couldn't say anything through his obnoxious grin for a while, making Quinn feel almost bad about doubting this great big love he claimed to have for Rachel. Quinn had never seen him this happy ever.

"I told him it was fine if she stayed with us, we have room for one more, right?", Quinn said when Blaine didn't seem mighty of words yet and that new information sent him into a new spin of speechlessness.

"Like...in my...room?", he finally asked, holding on to the kitchen counter as if to help support his weight, "In my bed, with me?"

"Well, she's certainly not staying with me and Beth's bed is not big enough for two"

* * *

><p>The first thing Blaine did when Santana and Brittany returned with Beth from their playtime in the park, occupying Quinn, was to rush to his computer. He couldn't control his features anymore when he found Rachel online and called her immediately.<p>

She greeted him with a wide grin of her own, the first really happy one he'd seen on her for weeks.

"Quinn just told me", he blurted out.

"Sam just told me, he took care of it all", Rachel said and laughed, "My visa date at the embassy is in two weeks and Sam already bought the plane tickets"

Then they were silent, just starring at each other for a while, beaming, so happy, both of them.

The concept was almost unfathomable, in three weeks she would be with him. Totally out of the blue, just when he'd resolved to try his luck to ask her.

He wouldn't need to anymore and he was admittedly glad, not because he didn't want to marry her, he knew if he was ever gonna marry a girl it would be her but because he had a feeling Rachel wouldn't have said yes, maybe. With her past and all. He decided not to tell her about the tiny silver ring he'd ordered for her, the one that would arrive at his place in a couple of days. No. She would come anyway – no need to scare her. He'd hold on to the ring though, you never knew.

"I can't believe this is happening", Rachel laughed, "Three weeks, Blaine! I'll be with you in less than a month"

"I can't wait", he said and just allowed himself to fall deep into the joy of it all.

Three weeks and he would be with the most wonderful woman in the world again, and have her and hold her and never let her go, if he could.

* * *

><p><strong>As always, the next chapter will be up any time after ten reviews :)<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

_**Author's Note: **I'm extremely sorry this took so long. It's because I've been hoping to find a beta for it because I didn't want it to go up without a second opinion. I had to edit it myself now though so a__ll faults are my own. Plus I had a hard time with this one, it doesn't flow so well and I would appreciate every honest opinion on this chapter!_

_Thank you so much for your patience!_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter Ten<em>

Contrary to what Rachel had expected, the three weeks until their flight to New York went by in the blink of an eye. While time had seemed to stretch out like a rubber band before, the weeks it took from Sam telling her about the internship to standing at Heathrow with two gigantic suitcases snapped by as if they were nothing. She knew it was mostly because she was so excited and that packing up most of her life in London while taking care of getting her visa and squeezing in as many meet-ups with her friends as possible, filled her days with constant action.

After all six months were a long time to be away from everything…and who knew if she would even come back after that. The airport was stuffed with tourists and unlike the last time she'd been there, crushed and annoyed with every happy face she saw, now she beamed at everyone and everything as she checked her bags in, Sam by her side and her friends and family standing by to bid their farewells.

They had another hour to spare before they had to get through customs so they went to have dinner at a Thai Deli in the mall area, Mercedes and Sugar toppling over with things Rachel absolutely had to do when she was in New York and Kurt gushing in stereo about all the great designers that had exclusive shops there and that Rachel better make some good money to do serious shopping.

Tina, however, nibbled on her noodles, her whole posture hunched, like she was a deflating balloon. "I'm sorry," Rachel whispered, so that only she could hear.

"It's alright, you got a big chance there and Blaine, I get it," Tina replied. "I'm just gonna miss you, you know?"

"I'm gonna miss you more, you're my Panda Princess after all. I don't even know what to do without you," Rachel said and affectionately brought her arm around Tina's shoulders, quite helpless faced with her friends glossy eyes. If Tina started crying, she would cry too, so much was sure.

"I'll visit, I promise," Tina vowed, swallowing hard and doing her best to compose herself.

"You have to"

With Rachel's best friend so distraught, the others seemed to pull themselves together. Kurt, Mercedes and Sugar were very collected, her Dads seemed happy that she was getting work experience in a "solid" work field and her Mom, well, she was over the moon and going on and on about Broadway and that Rachel should try to see as many shows as she could.

Where, in the past, everyone had been on Rachel's case about finding something economically wiser to do than acting, Shelby had been the only one encouraging her to go for her big dreams, learning lines with her, singing and helping tirelessly. Rachel knew she hadn't directly disappointed her when she chose to study Publishing but she knew that her Mom still thought she should keep on working towards the stage, to follow in her footsteps, joking that the part of Elphaba at the West End was practically sitting there, waiting for Rachel Berry to take it on. To embody the role that had made her mother famous. As they all finished and went to walk Rachel and Sam to customs, Rachel stuck to her Mom, feeling a wave of sadness about leaving her. She realized that – although she would dearly miss everyone else – she would actually be pained with not being close to her Mom.

Growing up, she didn't see her all that much, just when her Dads visited the theater and when Shelby would bring her to rehearsals. Still when they'd been together, her Mom was like her best friend, she didn't discipline her like her fathers did, she took her out to do all these girly things which were just awkward doing with her Dads. She remembered going bra shopping with her Dads once, a memory so excruciatingly embarrassing she flinched just thinking about it. Shelby had taken over after hearing about it. When Shelby excited the active stage work and started teaching, she made more time for Rachel and quickly became her biggest confidante.

Her Mom was her compass, the one she could always run to, the one person in the universe that would always have her back and leaving her behind was decidedly the hardest thing about her move to NYC. She hugged her the longest, after everyone else, smelling her hair and the familiar whiff of Betty Barkley perfume, wishing she could just tuck the woman into her handbag and bring her along.

"Call me anytime, Honey," Shelby said, definitely feeling her daughter's reluctance to let her go. "No matter what time, no matter how often, okay?"

Rachel nodded, not trusting her voice to speak anymore and they parted, Shelby bringing both her hands to her shoulders, squeezing encouragingly.

"You'll be just fine," she promised, grinning with what Rachel read as beaming pride. "Just look at you, heading out into the big, big world."

Rachel's Mom nudged her daughter's chin up with her thumb, her golden arm rings rattling familiarly and it took Rachel back to a million little moments when she had done the same. Ballet recitals, school productions, Rachel's fist time as an Extra in theater, school tests and every last acting audition, every time her Mom had been there, nudging her chin up so she would stand tall and proud.

"And smile," her Mom would say then and she did now in a way that Rachel couldn't help but obey. "There you are!"

They lingered for as long as they could after that, Rachel hugging everyone once again, before Sam got too impatient and urged her on. She could hardly pry herself away but finally Sam won and dragged her away, accompanied by well-wishes and very many promises to keep in touch.

Hardly noticing her way through customs and boarding the plane, Rachel's head was still with her family and friends. However, when Sam took her hand as the plane was set into motion and headed to the runway, she snapped out of it, hit by a whole new array of emotions. The most prominent was blind excitement, seeing Blaine again was the silver lightning to all of her endeavors, even when she hadn't known that she would see him again at all, just the thought of being close to him again had done wonders to lift her mood. It had been daydreams then, mindless thought constructs and scenes she'd made up in her head stemming from desire and yearning and fueled by their tragic fate. Now everything was different. Knowing, that she was mere hours away from seeing, from feeling him again for real sent her into a tailspin.

She wanted to hug everyone near her with pure joy, screaming from the top of her lungs that she was so close, so so close to the most wonderful guy of the planet. Surely, in the back of her mind she worried a bit because, although Blaine was amazing on all her accounts, she had never, in fact, spent a longer portion of time by his side and they were supposed to live together, just like that. Sleeping in one bed, living each day like a married couple and that scared her but she chose not to think about it. She preferred to be excited, to look forward to feeling his arms around her again. If there was reason to worry, she would worry then. Now was not the time.

Now, she looked out the window, watching the ground shrink underneath her, and she felt reminded of the game _Risk_, where you saw everything from way up above, and thought of what she left behind and what was ahead of her. First of course, Blaine and then the job at the Publishing House. She wasn't really sure what to make of that yet, she was excited, yes, because she liked publishing, her studies, albeit something of a second choice, had been interesting and she could see herself working in that field. But a sense of unease lingered. She heard her Mom in the back of her head, telling her she was too good not to try out for acting schools but what was she to do? This internship meant New York and New York meant Blaine and she couldn't have let that opportunity pass. Maybe she was sacrificing a big shot at home for this new adventure but she refused to regret the choice she made. Meeting Blaine had turned her whole neat world upside down and that had to count for something. She needed to try it, she owed it to her heart.

She nodded to herself in resolve when Sam put on his headphones and selected a movie to watch. Rachel thought about doing the same but she had Blaine on her mind – and a particularly sweet memory that she wanted to linger on for a while. Every other kind of distraction faded, pale in comparison to the scene playing in the back of her mind. She closed her eyes, snuggling deeper into her seat and thought back, making the images come back to life from recollection.

* * *

><p>A week after Rachel had learned about the internship, she had opted to stay in on a Friday night when Sam was out and skyped with Blaine instead. He was happy as a clam and told her about a multitude of New York activities he'd had in mind for her, he had so much planned for them that she had to slow him down a bit and remind him that she was going to work 9 to 5 most days. This didn't quell his enthusiasm by much though, she doubted anything could at this point. She felt exactly the same way so she couldn't blame him.<p>

"Are you going to pick me up at the airport? With flowers and all that jazz?" Rachel quipped, grinning as she hooked one leg under to sit more comfortably on her chair.

"Of course and when I see you get out of arrivals, I will run to you in slow motion and twirl you around in the cheesiest possible way," Blaine declared with a glint in his eye.

"It's gonna be so epic," Rachel laughed light heartedly. Everything was so much easier these days, laughing, joking and simply getting through the day. With an impending reunion rather than the sting of separation over their heads this wasn't a surprise.

"Totally RomCom," Blaine agreed with a smirk, as easily happy as she was.

"Oh, I don't care for these kinds of movies," Rachel interjected, chin high with the most superior Oxford accent she could produce. "I much prefer foreign art films, with lots of black and melancholia."

"You hate art films," Blaine stated with certainty, even though they had never really covered that topic before. He just knew.

"I do," Rachel admitted with a defeated wobble of her head. "I absolutely loathe art films. I will never not wonder how can people enjoy them? They confuse me and in the end everyone dies and I'm depressed. Call me crazy but I watch movies to make me happy not miserable"

"Hey, I'm not judging you," Blaine promised.

"Yes, because you like car chase movies," she scoffed, remembering his feverish hymn on _The Fast And The Furious 1 to 4_ some earlier conversation.

"Well, I'm a guy, I'm all about hot cars and fast women – I mean…," Blaine joked and Rachel guffawed joyfully.

"So you like your women fast, huh?" she asked, raising her eyebrow playfully.

"I'm very much open to any pace, my love," Blaine replied, lowering his voice to a husk, playing into her sexy tone.

"Will you take me right when I touch down in New York?" Rachel asked seductively, nibbling at her bottom lip and looked up to him with what she hoped was be a sultry glance.

"If you want me to, I'll strip you down on the runway," Blaine replied but he didn't sound as jokey as he should, a raw edge to his voice giving Rachel sudden, unanticipated goosebumps as their flirty banter turned into something more. She liked and welcomed this direction.

"Let's say you took me straight home instead," she began, she didn't want to creep him out but maybe he would be into what she felt like doing, it was worth a try, at least. "What would you do to me?"

On her screen, Blaine's eyes widened as he undoubtedly caught her drift but he didn't respond right away. He took a deep breath first and licked his lips, she could see him think about how to play it before he spoke again, "I would lay you down on this bed..."

Blaine was leaning closer toward the camera so it would still pick up on his lowered voice, Rachel mirroring his actions on her side of the connection, "And I would take off your pretty dress and your underwear, slowly stripping you out of all this unnecessary fabric"

"Ah-huh," Rachel nodded breathlessly. "Go on"

"I would make you watch while I take off my own clothes, so you could see how much I missed you," he whispered.

"Let's see that," she commanded. "Let's see how much you're missing me."

Blaine complied, freeing himself of his shirt swiftly, sitting there bare chested. He looked up at her and made sure she saw that his hands traveled south. After a bit of shimmying he held his jeans and briefs into the camera with a smirk.

"Now you," he ordered and Rachel's top was gone in a heartbeat. "The bra too."

She did as he asked, but not before locking her bedroom door, you never knew. This was hardly a scene she would want her brother to walk into. Not that she was really sure what scene this was going to be. She was topless now, her nipples hard more from the chill in her room than the heat she felt. It was sexy, so much was sure but admittedly it was also a bit weird. Still Blaine's eyes scanning her hungrily quickly became the only thing she really noticed. He swallowed hard and his voice broke when he spoke, moving things along. "I would touch you, run my hands over you."

Rachel licked her lips involuntairly and closed her eyes at the image, feeling her goosebumps buzz, sending shudders up and down her body.

"Do it," he huffed, almost a growl. "Touch you where I would."

Without even a second of hesitating, Rachel's hands flew to her breasts, grabbing herself, watching him closely when she felt her nipples harden even more under her fingertips. Blaine breathed a little deeper on the other side.

"I would go lower," Blaine whispered and she did this too, her hands trailing down her stomach, down to her skirt, under the hem, underneath her slip. This was fast and naughty and there was not an insignificant amount of self-consciousness making her blush but she was too hot to stop now.

He gasped as her own fingers found her heat, imagining it was Blaine and she started padding lazy circles around her flesh, going slowly while she held his gaze. She'd done this so many times within the last couple of months, the thought of Blaine alone usually enough to make her finish in record time and record numbers.

Now he was watching her hungrily and she worked hard to slow down the pace – it was a daunting task, him watching her this way almost sent her coming undone but she held back, clenching her muscles tightly together, biting down on her lips harder.

"Talk to me," Blaine ordered now and Rachel nodded, seeing that Blaine's own hand disappeared out of the frame, between his legs where she couldn't see.

"I want you so badly," she forced out through gritted teeth, running her fingers, soaked now, through her folds. "I need you."

Blaine merely growled in response. His arm moved faster. Rachel could feel herself so close to the edge watching his muscles tense and loosen, roll rhythmically under his tanned skin.

"Blaine," she whispered. "Let me see you."

It took him a second to find his way back to her, emerging from his own daze with cloudy eyes but then he nodded and she saw him shift, using his free hand to move the camera lower. His erection came into frame and she saw it proudly pointing up. He didn't stop pumping while he showed himself to her and while she couldn't see his face anymore, she could hear him breathing heavy and fast. He didn't talk, he just took deep huffs, dotted with growls and moans.

It was electrifying all by itself but seeing him so hard and firm, withering under his own grasp was so deliciously dirty, Rachel couldn't breathe at all anymore. Watching him pleasure himself like that made her whole body tense, all senses set to overdrive and when he called her name loudly, blaring through her speakers, she lost the brittle grip she'd had on herself.

Her orgasm sent shock waves through her body and she called out his name as her head fell into her neck and her eyes flew shut. She was trying to breathe evenly but that was nearly impossible. When she regained her composure, setting her eyes on the screen again, she found Blaine wide eyed and blazing. "I can't wait to get you here." She couldn't agree more.

* * *

><p>Rachel sat in her seat on the plane and smiled stupidly to herself, resisting the urge to touch her body right there to relieve some of the tension her memory had brought on but she reminded herself that it was just a couple of hours until Blaine could do that for her. So for the lack of further pg activities, she chose a movie from the menu, a romantic comedy of course, and lost herself in the fictional world, feeling all the feelings the protagonists felt.<p>

Just this time, she could understand the scope of their feelings, the essence of those movies, to show a love larger than life, so all-consuming you could easily get lost in it – she'd always longed to feel like that and had never quite believed she could. But now she did, now it all made sense.

She felt this way about Blaine. It was silly really, she hardly knew him but the fact alone that she was on her way to another continent to live with him after spending one day together proved how deep her feelings ran. How crazy she was willing to get. What a chance she was taking.

After two movies and a Bloody Marry, Rachel descended her seat and tried to sleep. Eventhough it was impossible to find a comfortable position at first, she eventually did fall into a dreamless slumber, gently rocked past consciousness my the slight rumble of flying.

By the time she opened her eyes again the monitor at the end of the row of seats showed the flight time countdown and to her surprise Rachel learned that they had less than an hour to go until touchdown at JFK. She wondered how she had managed to sleep so long but she welcomed it, beaming. She swallowed hard to keep the butterflies in her stomach in check and shook her brother awake.

"Wha-?" Sam started blinking a couple of times and seemed to recover where he was. "Are we there?"

"Almost," Rachel grinned excitedly. "About forty minutes until were at JFK."

"Oh boy, did I sleep all this time?" Sam asked, rubbing his eyes.

"You've been out for at least six hours," Rachel laughed. "You missed a meal…I helped myself to it, didn't think you would mind."

"Of course you did," Sam's eyebrow went up while the corners of his mouth went down, mourning the loss of food to his sister.

"I can't breathe," Rachel said then, unprompted, and felt her eyes ready to pop. It started to sink in slowly that her journey was almost over. She was so close. So close to Blaine and suddenly the whole thing seemed so much bigger than her, than anything really. If she were honest, she'd have to admit that she was terrified. But she refused to even think this thought.

"Relax," Sam told her with an easy and reassuring nod and took her hand. It was a sweet and encouraging gesture which he had used to calm her down back when they were little and it didn't fail this time either.

Rachel nodded bravely and swallowed, leaning back into her seat one last time, taking deep breaths to brace herself. For her life, for absolutely everything, to change. From now on she would just go with it. Just see where it all went. No pressure. Everything could happen and she opted for fatalism. She wasn't going to fight change or maybe even disappointment. The important thing was to take that step. To risk something. For Blaine. And for herself.

Going through customs took the two of them almost another hour, mainly waiting in line to get the stamps into their passports, meaning that they're work visas all checked out. The man behind the counter was friendly enough yet Rachel was out of patience and answered him a little less wordly and a little more cold than she normally would have. But it was late and time just wouldn't pass – Blaine was so close but she felt like she was walking through sticky goo, where everything moved excruciatingly slow. Eventually though, she got her stamp and the green light to go on to the baggage band where Sam already waited for her. She was now officially an American for the time being. Six month-work visa and permit with everything neat and in order, she joined her brother and waited for her bags to appear on the band. This was the last thing keeping her from Blaine.

Still, of course, their luggage was about the last to appear on the band and when it finally did, Rachel had a hard time getting her suitcases down. Her arms felt like jelly from sitting in a cramped space for over eight hours on the plane and she was tired and allergic to physical exercise at this point. She took a deep breath to man up and lifted her trunks off the thing with a sigh of exasperation and several bones making unpleasant cracking sounds. Well, all's fair in love and war, they say, right? Even breaking bones.

"Ready to go?" Sam asked her when she let herself drop down on her biggest suitcase, almost wishing to put her head between her knees but that seemed a little too dramatic. Plus it would only drag out meeting Blaine and she wasn't a fan of that. So Rachel nodded, the nervous feeling to her stomach flailing right up again anyway. She suddenly needed to go to the bathroom and immediately knew why – stage-fright. Or something of the like.

She felt just like she did when she was about to go on stage, all the symptoms were there; she couldn't breathe, couldn't really walk and she felt like her tummy was bloating up, all the butterflies mutating to fire dragons, sending rumbles and shivers through her body. It was rather miserable really. But that didn't matter now. It couldn't.

"You'll be fine, Rach," Sam promised and nudged her on, away from the claim, through a narrow corridor, along with a sea of people and finally, finally into the arrivals hall. Rachel bit her lip and swallowed her fear, once more reminding herself to let the dice fall as they may and go with whatever happened next.

She looked around, across the busy hall and, pushing past Sam, she gained speed even though she was pulling her two suitcases which were packed to the brim and a lot heavier than his. She couldn't have cared less. Nothing mattered now but finding Blaine, super human strength seemed to be a by-product of the reunion-thrill she was feeling.

When the masses around her wouldn't part fast enough, Rachel huffed impatiently, navigating around people, becoming more and more agitated by the second because she couldn't make Blaine out anywhere. Groups of happy travelers were huddled together at all sides but Rachel's very own seemed to have to wait. Where was he?

Then, suddenly a family of four stepped to the side as if on some secret cue and revealed a sight that made her heart stop short. There, a very familiar strand of hair, striking up in an odd curl, waves of hair falling over a forehead, dominated by thick eyebrows and the hazel golden eyes below that looked so much brighter in real life glimmered in the artificial light, all the way at her. He had found her. And just like that, the whole world around her disappeared, narrowing down to just Blaine Anderson. She had him back.

* * *

><p>Sam Evans was well aware that his baby sister froze next to him when he saw her Blaine in the flesh for the first time. He'd been waiting in the middle of the arrival hall, sporting a giant wide grin and a sensible, colorful bouquet of Gerbera flowers, Rachel's favorite. He was tiny. A lot smaller than Sam but the latter could tell why she felt attracted to him. Blaine looked just like the guys Rachel would point out in the telly or from some band; the dark haired, olive skinned type with the obligatory 5 o'clock shadow and a certain boyish charm.<p>

What made him honestly happy was how this guy looked at Rachel. They stood a couple of paces away from each other, soaking each other in, just studying each other and Sam felt like he was invisible to either of them. Looking at the scene like this he could almost forget that what they were doing was totally nuts. Sure, not half as nuts as getting married would have been but still nuts. Yeah, you could say he'd arranged the internship in the first place but that had been just to keep them from doing something immeasurably more stupid. Like _getting married_.

Blaine still stared at Rachel like she was the only solid thing and very much like he would still not be opposed to marrying her on the spot and when he closed the distance between them, Sam felt almost like he was intruding, just by watching them. It was just a hug at first but so close, so tight and intimate it immediately triggered his brotherly protective instinct.

He knew it was primal, he could see how close they already were, how tethered together just by one night and some skype calls and it scared him because he knew how crazy it all was. Should it all go to pieces eventually, Rachel would be heartbroken, even more than she had been with Finn or Jesse or anyone.

It would tear her apart. Knowing this and watching them start to make out made him uneasy but he wasn't a caveman, so instead of ripping his baby sister off of the guy and threaten his life should he ever hurt her, he busied himself with looking around, inspecting the airport. He'd just decided to get a coke from a kiosk when the two lovebirds regained consciousness of their surroundings – and him with it.

"Sam, this is Blaine," Rachel grinned, totally oblivious, her pupils so dilated he thought she might pass out any second. The lip gloss she had so hastily applied before was smeared all over Blaine's face and from the looks of it, it only occurred to the guy just now that he had frenched a girl in front of her bigger brother. He obviously realized that Sam wasn't too amused and held his hand out not just politely but also somewhat apologetic.

"Hey, it's really nice to meet you, Rachel tells me great things about you," Blaine smiled and to Sam's chagrin, he found himself unable not to smile in return. The guy was a charmer. Defyingly so.

"She exaggerates," Sam promised and Blaine offered Rachel to pull her trolleys a second before he could, proving to be a gentleman which at least pleased Sam. Together, Sam a few paces behind Rachel who'd started bombarding Blaine with questions, they made their way out of the airport.

By the time they reached the car, he was somewhat reassured that he wouldn't have to kill Blaine right away. He was a nice guy, seemed honest and sincere. But Sam would still keep an eye on him.

His little sister deserved the best, so much was sure. And Blaine still had to prove without a doubt that he was. His trial run for a place at Rachel's side was just beginning and Sam would keep close watch. Just like the scientists in the labs.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Updates will come slower on this one from now on since Uni has started again and Spring Awakening (my uni musical this year) has just gone into overdrive-rehearsal mode, so bare with me. I won't neglect this story more than I absolutely have to, promise!<em>**


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